Leaders have themselves to blame for the lack of engagement with these ill-defined referendums

ON Friday, the Government asked the electorate two questions. Yesterday, the nation’s answers were tallied, counted and recorded. In one respect, this is the very epitome of democracy, a representative government of the people asking the citizenry, and being told, for a variety of reasons, No and No.

In reality, this is a much more significant response from the people to the Government and, particularly to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin. While there are many reasons that the nation voted No on Friday, chief among them was the lack of engaged campaigning by our leaders on a topic they decided to prioritise. In the days leading up to the poll, readers will have been conversing with friends, family and colleagues. They will know there was an overwhelming sense of confusion as to what, if any, differences these votes would make and what, in fact, we actually were voting on.

The Irish electorate is a discerning one. It is one that values its vote because it knows how hard our forebears fought for our sovereignty, but the reality is that on any topic, the average Irish voter requires an actual reason to vote Yes.

Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin and the Coalition they lead need to reflect on the reality that they did not give the electorate any positive reason to back their proposals. The campaigns were on the back foot from the get-go with the choice of wording, notably the undefined ‘durable’ when it comes to relationships, in the Family referendum.

In the Care referendum, the focus on the apparent change in commitment to State support of carers with the insertion of ‘strive’ into the replacement text was the next significant body blow to the Government’s campaign.

But the real blood-in-thewater moment came when the Taoiseach, during the small bit of campaigning he actually did do, managed to insert his foot in his mouth when arguing that he didn’t believe the State had any reason to care for people with disabilities.

When the referendum to abolish the Seanad failed a decade ago, then taoiseach Enda Kenny admitted the electorate had given him ‘a wallop’. This is Mr Varadkar’s double wallop, as he accepted yesterday, but the ramifications will be more complex.

There will be many claiming this No-No vote as a win for the politics of division and hatred and, obviously, a significant backlash against the Government did form part of the momentum against these amendments.

There are those who seek to claim justification or a mandate for an Ireland that will be less open to caring and diversity. We would argue that would be a misreading of these results.

The day having been lost, it is now up to this Government to listen to the people, understand what they’re saying, and change tack. They need to engage the silent majority of hardworking, centrist Irish voters who want a country that represents the best facets of being Irish reflected in their leaders. This is a timely reminder, before local elections in June and a general election in the next 12 months, that there is likely to be a robust examination of issues such as housing and immigration.

It is also a spur for the Taoiseach to engage in intense reflection. The clock is ticking, and the Government must understand and prioritise the issues that matter to the electorate.