A DOUBLE no vote has been returned by Clare voters for the Referendums on the 39th and 40th Constitutional Amendments.
Convincing no votes were returned by the Clare electorate with 68% rejecting the Family Amendment and 74% voting against the Care Amendment.
Turnout in Clare was recorded at 44%. Of the registered electorate of 90,101, there was a total of 39,650 votes cast for the Family Referendum, of which 39,147 were valid. For the Carer Referendum, 39,654 votes were cast and 39,110 were valid.
For the Family Referendum the final result in Clare was NO: 26,574 (68%) and YES: 12,573 (32%).
For the Care Referendum, the final result in Clare was NO: 28,979 (74%) and YES: 10,131 (26%).
Hotel Woodstock was the venue for the count centre with no political representative from any party in attendance from 9am when counting commenced to when an official result was announced at 17:39 by Returning Officer, Pat Wallace.
Speaking in Dublin Castle, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (FG) said the Government “accept responsibility for the result”. He commented, “It was our responsibility to convince a majority of people to vote Yes, we’ve clearly failed to do so”.
Interest from the public for the count resembled that of the turnout itself in that it was low. A lone tallyman had been at the count centre from early morning but departed prior to 12pm.
Kilmaley man Patsy O’Grady a keen political follower said he was stunned to be the only member of the public to turn up to watch the count, he was later joined by Clarecastle husband and wife, Gabriel and Geraldine Gregan. Speaking to The Clare Echo, Geraldine admitted she was very disappointed with the lack of engagement from the public at the count centre and pointed out it was a chance for the youth in particular to see how democracy works.
