Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald.
The referendum to enshrine Children’s Rights in the Irish Constitution has passed today by a margin of 58% to 42%.
The referendum was voted on yesterday with voters going to the polls, 48 hours after a potentially damaging Supreme Court ruling had deemed the Government’s use of public funds illegal. This court also found that extensive passages on information leaflets provided, breached rules of integrity. The essence of these courts findings stated that public funds cannot be used to promote a voting outcome, based on the previous 1995 McKenna judgement.
Yesterday was the second time only that a referendum has been held on a Saturday, the first being 10 years ago, in the second vote on the Nice Treaty.
Counting of votes from all 43 constituencies began at 9am this morning with the full and final outcome announced this afternoon.
Three of Ireland’s 43 constituencies voted against the Government’s plans to enshrine Children’s Rights into the Constitution. These constituencies were named as; Donegal South West, Donegal North East and Dublin North West.
While voter turnout in the county was relatively low at around 33.49%, some 1,066,239 people did vote out of a total electorate of 3,183,686. Figures now indicate that 615,731 voted Yes and 445,863 voting No.
Counting of votes here in Tipperary North & South indicate the following returns:-
Tipperary North: YES – 55.75%, NO – 44.25% – with a voter turnout of just 37.22%.
Tipperary South: YES – 54.17%, NO – 45.83% – with a voter turnout of just 35.18%.
It is now quite possible that this decision could be challenged once again in the Courts, in light of last week’s Supreme Court ruling, the written findings of which have yet to be published.
Photo courtesy G.Willoughby
How many people know the full content of what Children’s Rights are. It can be hard to vote if one doesn’t fully know what one is voting for.
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