May I congratulate the Llywydd on introducing the statement today, and also welcome the statement and what’s included in it? Specifically, then, I would like to strongly support the intention to reduce the minimum voting age to 16 for the 2020-1 Assembly election. I realise that we are at the very early stages of this Bill and that it will come before the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee for further scrutiny at Stage 1. So, as you’ve already mentioned, we’re at the beginning of the journey now, but we might as well say that we agree fundamentally with what you had to say?

I recall, in the third Assembly—and it was an Assembly at that point—the local government committee crossed the seas to Europe to look at voting ages and voting systems and so on, and we visited countries such as Denmark and Sweden, and what became apparent there was that teenagers were being educated about the various political parties—in countries such as Denmark. They learned exactly what the local 'Labour' party stood for, what the local 'Plaid Cymru' equivalent stood for, in a way that was simply educational, and people accepted that. And that was a means of informing people about what their different views meant, and that has worked in Denmark over a period of years. I think that was the substance of what was happening in Sweden too. You could see how children and young people took an interest, a real interest, in the voting system and tended to be more willing to use their votes.

So, that was the evidence that we received when we sought the real facts overseas. So, I’m sure that the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee will need to go abroad again to see whether those views have changed. But, certainly, there are other nations in the vanguard in this regard. Because as David Melding has already said, the evidence that we received from that evidence gathering is: if people don’t vote in the first two elections where they are qualified to vote, they never will vote. I think that’s the importance of reducing the voting age to 16, whilst that enthusiasm is still there, and ensuring that young people have the confidence, before leaving home, to vote. They are far more likely to vote in that scenario.

We’ve seen that same enthusiasm with our Youth Parliament. Those of us who have been involved and have been meeting with our youth parliamentarians— some of whom are very young—you just see how enthusiastic they are about the whole process. Because there are a number of injustices out there, and they want to do something about it, and they know that the political process is the way to deal with those injustices, in relation to language, the environment, or whatever it is may be, and they are very enthusiastic. In a way, some people have become disillusioned with political systems. I don’t see that with our young people, and I think it’s important to emphasise that point.

I see that time is against us, and I can see that the Deputy Llywydd is looking at me, so I will just mention a point on the name of this institution. I think it deserves the name 'Senedd', because, as you’ve already mentioned, we have taken that step from being an Assembly that had no powers and no taxation powers. We now have legislative powers, primary legislative powers, and the power to levy tax—that is, we are a Senedd, so why not name ourselves 'Senedd'? We would then be on a par with the Parliament in Scotland and the Parliament in Westminster. I understand that there is some sensitivity around this, and of course we will be scrutinising the Bill line by line, but I also believe that as we have taken that step to become a Senedd, then surely we should call ourselves 'Senedd'. Thank you very much.