Should more politicians step aside to ‘make way for the next generation’?

People Before Profit (PBP) TD Bríd Smith announced recently her intention to step aside to make space for a younger candidate, Cllr Hazel De Nortúin, in the next general election.

Speaking to the RTÉ's News at One last week, she said: “If I contest the next election, it will be five years or more before I can make way for the next generation ... I really think what we need in Dáil Éireann is a new generation of young working-class people who know what it is really like to live the sort of life of inequality and social injustice that we have witnessed in this country ... and to tell us like it is.”

The 61-year-old Dublin South-Central TD raises an interesting question. Should more politicians be “making way for the next generation”?

It’s no wonder that a 2022 survey from the National Youth Council of Ireland showed seven in 10 people aged 18 to 24 were considering emigrating

Parliaments are intended to be reflective of society, hence the term “representative democracy” — yet in Dáil Éireann, fewer than a quarter of TDs are women; the average age when it first sat was 48½. And this is in a country that continues to have one of the EU’s youngest and fastest-growing populations. The median age in Ireland is 38.8, and Ireland has the highest share of under-20s in the European Union, at 26 per cent, according to Eurostat. And yet policy and decision-making are the responsibility of a cohort a decade or more older.

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It’s no wonder that a 2022 survey from the National Youth Council of Ireland showed seven in 10 people aged 18 to 24 were considering emigrating, with many citing the housing crisis and cost of living as driving factors. These issues were echoed in a 2023 Youth Lab survey that found 70 per cent of 18- to 35-year-olds were worried about the cost of living, housing, and healthcare, with 55 per cent supporting the statement that Ireland is “run by the old and for the old”.

Young people deserve more inclusion in political processes and the opportunity to contribute to the development of policies that will directly affect their lives.

With more than 80 per cent of TDs aged 40 or over, Ireland is missing out on the innovation that can be gained from intergenerational working. Most people accept that diversity of life experience leads to better decision-making in business. In government, it’s even more crucial. Much can be gained from the transmission of learning between generations. And yet younger people continue to be held back because they have less “experience” than older adults; moreover, political parties often continue to favour the incumbents or older candidates.

The inclusion of young people in politics is subject to the same pushback as the inclusion of women. They just are not that interested, the narrative goes. Political parties say that they just cannot find young people or women who are interested in politics, leaving the field to those middle-aged men who wish to serve.

But if you create the space, they will come. It was women and young people who helped usher in many of the progressive changes in Ireland over the past decade — they are the backbone of social and political movements. Look to youth councils operating in 31 local authorities, or to the European Youth Parliament to see the appetite for political participation.

The age of candidacy in Ireland is 21, yet only 2% of TDs elected in 2020 were in their 20s

In many respects, parliament remains an exclusionary work environment despite efforts to address its culture and structures. In 2021, the Ceann Comhairle established a forum on creating a family-friendly and inclusive house. The vast majority of the forum’s recommendations remain unimplemented. Young people, women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and the Traveller community remain woefully underrepresented, and change is slow. This is borne out by the experience of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, who was the first serving minister to have a baby while in Cabinet. She spoke to The Irish Times recently about the sexism she faced on her return from maternity leave after the birth of her second son. “What I note about comments I have seen is that nobody’s brave enough to put their name to it. It reflects more on the people who say them. As I said, nobody — nobody — has been brave enough to put their name to it. And nobody has said it to my face. So that says more about them,” she said.

The age of candidacy in Ireland is 21, yet only 2 per cent of TDs elected in 2020 were in their 20s. In 2012, Ireland legislated for gender quotas, recognising that without enforcement, political parties would not increase the representation of women in politics fast enough. The idea of youth quotas has been debated in several parliaments, including the UK. Political institutions are so averse to change that legislative interventions in the form of quotas are becoming increasingly necessary to break the status quo. It would be disappointing if such a measure was necessary to increase representation of young people in Ireland.

There is nothing to stop political parties from adopting voluntary youth quotas in their candidate selection processes, or actively seeking out younger candidates for the ballot. Other options are term limits, aimed at decreasing the practice of politicians holding seats for decades. It’s not so much that young people aren’t interested in electoral politics, but they need the established parties to create space for them to get elected. Smith has said she will support and campaign for her successor, De Nortúin. If only other incumbents showed such leadership. Until then, we will continue to be a society in which young people are economically disadvantaged and politically marginalised.