Citizenship Referendum carried by massive majority

The Constitutional Amendment has been carried by a resounding majority with 31 of the 34 polling areas counted endorsing it by…

The Constitutional Amendment has been carried by a resounding majority with 31 of the 34 polling areas counted endorsing it by a four-to-one majority.

After over 12 hours of counting, all the counties have passed the referendum with massive majorities.

The average national turnout so far is 60.9 per cent with counties outside Dublin reporting a higher turnout. In Kerry the turnout was 67.5 per cent, while in Cavan more than 67.3 per cent of the population visited polling stations. In Dublin polling areas the turnout is reported to be lower. In Dublin City the turnout was 54.1 per cent while in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown it was 55.3 per cent.

With a total poll of 1,620,662 votes counted in 31 constituencies, the declared results give an overall percentage of 79.35 per cent to the Yes vote and 20.65 per cent to the No vote.

READ MORE

The change to the Constitution means babies born in Ireland to non-Irish parents will no longer have the automatic right to Irish citizenship unless at least one parent has lived here for three of the previous four years.

The referendum follows a European Court ruling last month that parents of children born on the island of Ireland could claim citizenship.

The European Court of Justice found Ms Man Levette Chen's daughter Catherine, who was born in Belfast in 2000, had the right to reside in the UK on the basis of being an Irish and, therefore, an EU citizen.

The court also decided that Catherine's mother, a Chinese national who would otherwise not be entitled to reside in the UK, may invoke a right of residence derived from that of her daughter.

Nationalist parties in Northern Ireland have claimed the referendum will undermine the Belfast Agreement which guarantees the right of people in the north to qualify as Irish citizens.

Those opposing the referendum have also condemned the Government for holding it on the same day as the local and European elections, claiming it was a cynical exercise with anti-immigrant tones.

However, the Government insists the Constitutional change and subsequent statutory changes will simply close a loophole in the citizenship laws and so prevent potential abuses.