*Hotel Woodstock was the Clare count centre.
A RESOUNDING defeat for the Government in the Family and Care Referendums does not mean the stability of coalition is under threat, a Clare TD has said.
Across the 39 constituencies, only Dún Laoghaire had a majority in favour of the 39th Amendment while every single constituency opposed the 40th Amendment in what was record-breaking referendum defeats for the Government.
Political sources have speculated that a General Election will be announced when Ministers return from their St Patrick’s Day trips.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Cathal Crowe TD (FF) outlined his view that such a scenario is unlikely and said it was important to respect the results. “I don’t believe the referendum result will shorten the life of this Government but I do share the view that many in political life have that we will have an election out of the way by Halloween.
“I think it is important the Government respect the results of both referenda and I will be particularly opposed to Mary Lou McDonald’s assertion that these referenda be rerun, the people have had their say, that is the beauty of democracy and it is time now for Government to back off and get on with the day to day political business of the county,” Deputy Crowe added.
On Monday, Limerick TD, Willie O’Dea (FF) when reacting to the Referendum results tweeted, “Fianna Fáil needs to get back to basics & abandon the Hate Speech Bill etc. Focus on Housing, Health and Law & Order and stop playing to the woke gallery. Start listening to the people, stop talking down to them and stop listening to the out of touch Greens & NGOs”.
Among those to agree with this view was the party’s youngest TD, James O’Connor (FF) which prompted Clare TD, Michael McNamara (IND) to remark, “the young, the old, the brave and the bold their duties to fulfil’. I couldn’t agree more, lads. We’ll meet at the parish church in Clooney a mile from Spancil Hill to discuss a new direction for Irish politics”.
Deputy McNamara said Cabinet Ministers misrepresented the advice of the Attorney General during the campaign. “The Attorney General’s advice when it was leaked in many ways mirrored some of the concerns that Michael McDowell had raised in the Seanad, I had raised in the Dáil and others had raised throughout. It is important to note that Cabinet Ministers misrepresented that advice in the media throughout the campaign, if you go back and look at what Cabinet Ministers said the advice they had received and represented that, compare that to the advice and there is a clear discrepancy, that calls into question in general when the Government say we have the Attorney General’s advice on any issue and we’ll bludgeon this through the whip system but we can’t publish the Attorney General’s advice, there is an onus on the Government to publish this advice when they say they are relying on it”.
Eric Nelligan (AON) flagged that Aontú was the only part in the Dáil “to listen to people and their concerns” which he said was reflected in the result. “I think the result shows that the major political parties in this country are extremely out of touch with the electorate. The established opposition is equally at fault in as they failed to question or hold to Government to account for their poorly worded and vague amendments”.
Castletroy based Eric added, “It gives me no pleasure to say this, but these referendums represented peak virtue signalling from the government. The Yes side were caught spreading misinformation on multiple occasions. When it looked like the No side might win, Minister’s started promising welfare reforms in an attempt to buy a yes vote”.
