Madam, - Michael McLoughlin (Opinion and Analysis, June 28th June) advocates the reduction of the voting age to 16 to let young people participate in decision-making in areas such as education, policing, housing and taxation.
If minors are capable of responsible, intellectual decision-making on such complex matters then the current debate on the age of consent is largely moot, because such protective legislation is based on the presumption that minors are at a stage of development when they are not always capable of making considered decisions by which they would later wish to be bound.
When I was younger I made plenty of stupid decisions, and while I learned enough from them to say that I regret nothing, I would not like my youthful indiscretion to have had national socio-political implications. - Yours, etc,
DARRAGH McDONAGH, Moyveela West, Oranmore, Co Galway.