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IT WAS CLOSER than expected and it went against what all the earlier opinion polls had indicated so the Seanad Referendum count created quite a bubble of political excitement today.
The government were slow to concede defeat until the last count was in due to how narrow the margin was.
However, a 12/12 loss in Dublin’s constituencies signaled that those who wanted to retain the second house would be celebrating tonight.
Eventually, the declaration was made that the amendment was defeated on a margin of 51.7 per cent to 48.3 per cent.
Of the total 1,240,729 votes, there were 14,355 invalid ballot papers. Of the remainder, the amendment proposal was greeted with a Yes vote 591,937 times but a No 634,437 times.
That left a winning margin of 42,500 for the No side.
The biggest Yes vote came from the Taoiseach’s home of Mayo with 57.46 per cent of voters in favour or scrapping the Seanad.
The largest No vote was a significant 61.33 per cent in Dublin South-East.
In Wexford, where the winning margin for the No side was just 69 votes, there was 579 spoiled votes.
Turnout, at 39.2 per cent nationally, was higher than expected. Dublin North-Central had the highest turnout rate of 48.23 per cent.
Carlow-Kilkenny: NO 50.53 per cent
Cavan-Monaghan: YES 54.87 per cent
Clare: YES 51.33 per cent
Cork East: NO 51.4 per cent
Cork North-Central: YES 51.8 4 per cent
Cork North-West: NO 50.05 per cent
Cork South-Central: NO 51.27 per cent
Cork South-West: YES 50.94 per cent
Donegal North-East: NO 51.69 per cent
Donegal South-West: NO 50.42 per cent
Dublin Central: No 57.88 per cent
Dublin Mid-West: NO 54.7 per cent
Dublin North: NO 54.67 per cent
Dublin North-Central: NO 54.77 per cent
Dublin North-East: NO 54.57 per cent
Dublin North-West: NO 54.69 per cent
Dublin South: NO 53.21 per cent
Dublin South-Central: NO 56.56 per cent
Dublin South-East: NO 61.33 per cent
Dublin South-West: NO 52.32 per cent
Dublin West: NO 57.58 per cent
Dun Laoghaire: NO 57.1 per cent
Galway East: YES 51.37 per cent
Galway West: NO 50.66 per cent
Kerry North-West Limerick: YES 53.84 per cent
Kerry South: YES 54.48 per cent
Kildare North: NO 54.61 per cent
Kildare South: NO 55.51 per cent
Laois-Offaly: NO 53.89 per cent
Limerick: YES 50.45 per cent
Limerick City: YES 52.72 per cent
Longford-Westmeath: YES 51.02 per cent
Louth: NO 52.33 per cent
Mayo: YES: 57.46 per cent
Meath East: NO 52.58 per cent
Meath West: NO 53.61 per cent
Roscommon-South Leitrim: YES 51.67 per cent
Sligo-North Leitrim: YES 50.76 per cent
Tipperary North: YES 50.38 per cent
Tipperary South: YES 50.41 per cent
Waterford: NO 53.46 per cent
Wexford: NO 50.09 per cent
Wicklow: NO 57.82 per cent
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The last thing you should do is listen to ordinary people’s opinions on complex technical topics. Look at Brexit.
Listen to what the technical experts are saying, and they are all to a man saying that Cork city needs to be extended to give it a critical mass which is important for many reasons.
@Fred Jensen: at the cost of the county though. Even the financial rebate being proposed is only for 5 years before review and doesn’t factor in lost revenue to the county council from developments they have already partially paid for.
There is also a concern the the financial model maybe unachievable in the short term for the city council
Majority of ordinary people in the county are dead set against the city council taking over. Increase in rates…no or little investment in these new areas…theyll become back waters.
@Tony Skillington: the extended City Council should have more money to spend as it wouldn’t have to subsidise the rest of the county council. The council of course might struggle
@Tony Skillington: so who is responsible for that traffic jam they call Douglas??
@Michael Collins: that’s in the county at present. So the county
@Tony Skillington: are they? Must people living in Douglas probably aren’t even aware that they are in fact living in the county. The county would have a stronger case if they hadn’t been pushing people out to far flung places to live. Cork is relatively small yet they seem to think living in Mallow and commuting would be better than living near the city.
May as well extend it to Midleton, Mallow, Macroom and Bandon seeing as ye are on such a roll lads.
So is Limerick city now bigger than Cork City ??as they have extended their boundary, and encompassed a far greater population than Cork city..
@Gary Heslin: limerick city doesn’t exist. It is now part of the county limerick. But the old boundary had a greater land area than Cork city has presently with half the population.
@prop joe: Incorrect. Limerick City still exists. It may be a unity authority with the county but it still has a border, as such. Population including suburbs 95k.
Why has Cork City got its own council ?
@sportsmad: like must urban areas it is governed locally. The counties we have presently where drawn up by the British 400 hundred years ago and don’t really make sense anymore. We should look at all county boundaries.
@prop joe: I’d like to see West Limerick and North Kerry join as one county!
@Colm O’Sullivan: I would like to see from west clare to the cork border, from north tipp to the cork border and east waterford to the cork border all come under the cork banner.
It has a bigger population than half of the counties in Ireland as it is, if the proposed expansion is approved, only 2 counties in the Republic will have a bigger population.
have your say