Debate contribution: Voting Age: 16- and 17-year-olds

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 24 September 2024.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

24 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Voting Age: 16- and 17-year-olds

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4644886

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Currently, young people's needs and interests are being left out of most political decisions made here, and we have a general problem, right across our society, with most categories and communities of people switching off from official politics and, thus, from voting. In many ways, when you hear some speeches and read some legislation and see how it is worded and purposefully made complex, that is no surprise. However, it is worth saying that politics is not just about what happens in this place or Westminster. Politics is all around us, and young people are engaged in it every single day. They are involved in campaigns every single day. Look at the campaigns for Palestine. Young people have dominated those on our streets across these islands. They protested against education maintenance allowance (EMA) cuts. Disgracefully, EMA has not been increased in 20 years; I still cannot over that mental fact. Young people are political, and the current barrier should be lifted so that young people are allowed to vote. It is worth mentioning that social inequality obviously affects voter turnout, and those in deprived communities, generally speaking, are less likely to vote. That is understandable when you see what Governments tend to prioritise — what they do and do not do. However, that is not true for the 16- and 17-year-olds who voted in the 2021 Scottish local elections, where class, which is a determining factor for most things in life, was not a factor for those under the age of 18 who voted. That only became a factor after the age of 18 and among people in their 20s. I remember, during the campaign around the Scottish independence referendum, that some of the best voices — generally for independence — in the debate were young people who were passionate and articulate, so I do not buy the idea that young people are not interested, are not political or are too stupid or naive, as some people suggest. It is no surprise that the DUP does not want the voting age to be lowered, because that party does not want a greater cohort of people to cast their verdict on its disastrous policies, its support for the Tories, its support for banning puberty blockers, its objections to relationships and sexuality education (RSE) and its attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community and migrants — the list goes on and on and on. Despite the fears of conservatives here and in Britain, not everyone aged 16, 17 and 18 is a radical socialist — yet — but they certainly tend to have better positions on political questions than parties here and those that have been in government in Westminster, including on climate change and Palestine. The list goes on. Therefore, they absolutely should be allowed to vote. I will paraphrase Frederick Douglass: power concedes nothing without a fight. Working-class people had to fight for the right to vote through a Chartist movement in Britain and other campaigns across the world. The suffragette movement had to fight to get votes for women, and that was a fight and a struggle. The civil rights movement here, as has been suggested, and in the US had to fight to get votes for people who were discriminated against and were not allowed to vote. Young people should not be forced to fight in the same way, but the same principle applies. Added to the votes at 16 motion and the point about the Secretary of State, the fact that migrants, asylum seekers and refugees cannot vote in our society but live here and contribute here is also a disgrace, and I call on the Secretary of State to make legislation quickly to resolve that matter as well. I pay tribute to everybody who has campaigned to highlight the worthy Votes at 16 cause. Politics in Action, the Northern Ireland Youth Forum and the National Union of Students - Union of Students in Ireland (NUS-USI) — a former employer — support the motion, and my message to those young people is to keep up the fight and keep campaigning. Like those people in the past who were denied the right to vote, I think that you can get the right to vote as well.

706 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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