Sir, – A report in The Irish Times ("Young back marriage equality but less keen on voting", May 1st) states that, while 90 per cent of 18-35 year olds support marriage equality, only 55 per cent are considering turning out to vote. This is a statistic perhaps to bear in mind when deciding how to answer the second question being put to the people on May 22nd.
A willingness to participate actively in our democracy is surely a very basic indicator of the maturity and committed citizenship which one would expect to find in a presidential candidate. – Yours, etc,
SALLY SWEENEY,
Carrigavantry,
Co Waterford.
Sir, – If we were to make a list of the top 500 amendments to the Constitution that would improve the way we run our country, then I believe that lowering the age of the president would be amendment number 504.
A more significant improvement would be to change the ratio of TDs to citizens. Currently, under Article 16, we can have no more than one member of the Dáil for each 20,000 members of the population.
If the German Bundestag were to operate with this same ration, it would have 4,000 seats. Currently there are just less than 600 elected members of the Bundestag.
After May 22 we will still be a country with too many elected members of parliament and too few 21-year-old presidents. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT O’ROURKE,
Lucan ,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Media outlets are saturated with coverage of the British royal baby and her happy parents. Paradoxically, this has led to our country being swept by simultaneous waves of enthusiastic republican commemoration and delighted, royalty-loving ooing and aahing.
Surely this extraordinary phenomenon makes the case for a reduction to 21 in the age requirement for the presidency.
With the greatest respect to our present admirable incumbent, I suggest that the prospect of having our very own democratic, constitutionally consistent presidential baby to ooh and aah over would be greatly enhanced by our installing in the Áras of a youthful president. – Yours, etc,
DENIS O’DONOGHUE,
Killarney,
Co Kerry.