Sir, – Did anyone see a poster encouraging them to vote Yes on the presidential age referendum? – Yours, etc,
CIARÁN CLANCY,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – The results of Friday’s referendums suggest that as many as 700,000 people who voted against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation have not voted against discrimination on the basis of age.
Surely this represents an inconsistent understanding of the term “equality”? – Yours, etc,
CIARÁN O’LEARY,
Killester,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – The outcome of Friday’s referendum on the age of candidates for president shows that the people will not be sold a pup when it comes to political reform. What we were presented with was a shallow imitation of reform and the people rightly did not buy into it.
The Government must now revisit the recommendations of the Constitutional Convention, virtually all of which they rejected or ignored, and return to the people with a comprehensive package of meaningful reforms.
In relation to last Friday’s referendum, those recommendations included giving citizens a say in the nomination of candidates for president and giving citizens resident outside of the State, including in Northern Ireland, the right to vote in elections.
In the wider context of reform, they included measures to directly empower citizens through citizen-initiated referendums, genuine efforts to involve more young people in politics and to modernise our constitution to the degree that people are demanding. – Yours, etc,
Prof COLUM KENNY,
Dublin City University;
Prof PEADER KIRBY,
University of Limerick;
Senator DAVID NORRIS;
DENIS PARFENOV;
Dr MATTHEW WALL,
Swansea University;
JESSICA FREED,
OLIVER MORAN,
Second Republic,
Cork.