“Presentation on NYCI Vote at 16 campaign” James Doorley, Deputy Director NYCI Lecture at UCD 25th March 2015

Introduction Introduction  NYCI is the representative body for national voluntary youth work organisations in Ireland  NYCI is a membership-led umbrella organisation that represents and supports the interests of voluntary youth organisations and uses its collective experience to act on issues that impact on young people.  47 member organisations working in every community in Ireland with approx 400,000 young people aged years

Background  One of the youngest populations in Western Europe-third of our population is under 25  We support active citizenship and right of young people to have a say in decisions and actions which impact on their lives  Our member orgs involve young people in programmes/activities which develop their skills and promote “participatory democracy”  Right to vote in elections/referenda-key power in any democracy  Wanted to put youth participation on agenda

Rationale  Generate greater political interest at early age- e.g. Scottish referendum 75% turnout  Promote political participation-allow young people to not just learn about politics but to practice it  16 year olds can leave school, get job  Broadens/extends democracy-120,000 more citizens will have right to vote  Young people today more access to & better informed that previous generations

Rationale Rationale  Give greater emphasis to youth issues-120k extra voters-politicians take more interest in their issues  16 much better age to get young on electoral register-vast majority in school-18 bad time many moving from home to education/training/work  European & International moves towards extending voting rights to 16/17 year olds- Scotland, Austria. Debate in UK, at EU level

Campaign Campaign  NYCI adopted a position in favour of extending voting rights to 16 and 17 year olds in 2004  Advisory Group of young people proposed campaign to introduce  In 2009 we formally launched “A New Age in Voting” Campaign  campaign site

Campaign  Met with then Minister Gormley, Oireachtas Committees, political parties to advocate on issue  We continued to highlight in media/hold events  A commitment to introduce Vote at 16 in manifesto of number of parties  Following election-commitment to establish Constitutional Convention in Prog for Govt  Extending voting rights to 17 year olds 1 of the items  We drafted submission in response to call  Invited to present to ConsConv in Jan 2013 

Campaign  We called on ConsConv to extend voting rights to 16 & 17 year olds-not just 17 year olds.  ConsConv voted in favour of extending voting rights & in favour of our proposal for it to 16  Up until Dec 2014 Govt committed to referendum in 2015  In Jan 2015 Govt announced not holding referendum  Official reason given “didn’t want to confuse voters” with too many referenda questions  NYCI disappointed by campaign goes on  Opportunity to build case & public support

Conclusion Thanks for listening Happy to answer questions/hear feedback