Kerry a firm no to both referendums Minister hits back at criticism

IT fell to County Registrar Pádraig Burke to deliver the result in the Care Amendment referendum at Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre. He began, as is customary, by addressing “ladies and gentlemen”, though the only people still watching by Saturday evening were perched in the media section overlooking the sports hall.

There were no whispers or coughs let alone whoops or hollers as Mr Burke confirmed that almost 76 per cent of voters in Kerry had rejected the proposal – the ‘No’ side had won with more than 25,000 votes to spare – but the silence belied humiliation on a national stage for the government. The country knew, by then, that the Family Amendment had been shot down, failing to secure even a third of votes cast. The national Care Amendment figures wouldn’t be known for a few hours more, but when they came, the result was even worse for the ‘Yes’ side.

The first tallies rolled in before late Saturday morning, by which time Education Minister Norma Foley had already switched to the language of the defeated-in-waiting:

“It’s approaching 11 o’clock now and not all of the boxes are open, but it seems, at this point, that more people have voted no than yes, but we’ ll wait until all the boxes are open, and then we’ll know for sure what has happened.”

The only hope left for local ‘Yes’ voters was the fact that those tallies all came from one part of the county – Tralee and North Kerry – but as preliminary results began to trickle in from elsewhere, it was apparent there was no great divide on either issue within Kerry. There were plenty of miraculous medals tumbling out of freshly opened ballot boxes, but ‘Yes’ wouldn’t return from the dead.

Most politicians steered clear of the scene – Minister Foley’s colleagues Breandán Fitzgerald and Niall Kelleher were the only councillors The Kerryman met at the centre – but Michael Healy-Rae couldn’t resist. He strode in like a dressage horse that afternoon.

“There are people above there [the Dáil], not only do they not believe in God, but they think they’re God themselves, and that’s why they can’t believe in him,” he told Nuacht RTÉ and The Kerryman. “They have to come down to earth a small bit.”

Turnout in Kerry was 42.6 per cent of the electorate – higher than many anticipated – and 33,741 people voted against the Family Amendment, 71.3 per cent of the total valid poll. ‘Yes’ went down by more than 20,000 votes. The gap in the Care Amendment referendum was 24,351.

We went home in the assumption there would be no recount.

EDUCATION Minister Norma Foley has hit back at Deputy Michael Healy-Rae’s stinging criticism of the government parties in the wake of last week’s Care and Family Amendment referendums.

Deputy Healy-Rae – speaking at the Kerry count centre in Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre on Saturday as it became clear the county had firmly rejected both proposals – accused the Government and opposition parties of being “completely and absolutely out of touch with what is happening in Ireland”. He also said the public had not sought either referendum, and further accused the government of being “hell-bent on wasting [money] and using the Dáil and Seanad for foolish purposes”.

But in responding to queries from this newspaper, Minister Foley (Fianna Fáil) has hit back at any suggestion the public had not sought a vote on the matters.

“The Citizens’ Assembly recommended taking out the outdated language in the constitution on the role of women,” she told The Kerryman. “So did the second commission on the status of women back in 1993.

“It is important that people are given the opportunity to express a view on the Constitution. The view has been expressed and the government accepts it. That’s the essence of democracy.”

The Family amendment fell short of 33-per-cent support nationally, and the ‘Yes’ side took an even bigger drubbing in the Care amendment referendum, with just 26.1 per cent of the vote. This has lead to fierce criticism of the government’s pre-referendum campaign. Minister Foley, however, said she was not found lacking: “I took part in a referendum debate on the Tonight Show on Virgin Media One, I put up social media videos and I took part in the government referendum campaign launch and the Fianna Fáil campaign launch.”

She also pointed to the government’s spending record in some of the areas Deputy Healy-Rae said the government needs to focus on.

“This government is spending over €1billion per year on the carers’ allowance, over €1billion on home-help hours and over €1 billion on the Fair Deal nursing home scheme,” she said. “We have a record budget of over €4.5billion this year for housing under the Housing for All plan and we have hired another 26,000 staff for the health service.

“I fully recognise this is not meeting the needs of all of the people. That’s a body of work that we will continue to pursue as a government. More work remains to be done.”