Tipperary senator under fire for going to Ireland rugby match instead of voting in referendums

A Tipperary senator, who failed to vote in last weekend’s referendums as he was in London to support the Ireland rugby team, is coming under mounting criticism for not voting.

Senator Garret Ahearn, along with Senator John McGahon, have both been criticised for attending the rugby match in Twickenham for the Six Nations game against England rather than vote in the two referendums.

“Unfortunately I was out of the country and could not cast my vote in Tipperary,” Senator Ahearn told The Nationalist.

Earlier this week Taoiseach Leo Varadkar defended the decision of  two Fine Gael senators to travel to Twickenham for Ireland’s Six Nations game against England rather than vote in the referendums.

The Fine Gael leader said he is “not their mammy” and will not tell his party members what to do with their weekends.

“Perhaps it was a trip that was organised long before polling day was set, I honestly don’t know,” he said.

Tipperary voters delivered a massive double “No” vote in the Family and Care Referendums and the margin of rejection of  the two proposed Constitutional amendments was higher than the national result. 

The Family Amendment result was the first to be announced by Local Returning Officer James Seymour at the Tipperary Constituency Count Centre at the Presentation Secondary School in Thurles at 5pm last Saturday.

There was an emphatic 73.3% “No” vote and 26.69%  Yes vote for the 39th Amendment Referendum. The Premier County’s “No” vote was 5.6% above the national “No” vote of 67.69%.

The Tipperary Electorate was 122,159 and the total poll was 54,280 giving a turnout of 44.4%, which  was a tiny margin above the national turnout of 44.36%. 

There were 614 spoiled votes in the Family Care Referendum Ballot giving a Total Valid Poll of 53,666.

There were 14,328 “Yes” votes (26.69%) and 39,338 “No” votes (73.3%).

The Care Amendment Referendum vote was announced three hours later and again produced an overwhelming “No” result.

A total of 41,500 (77.4%) voters rejected the 40th Amendment Referendum in Tipperary with 12,083 (22.5%) “Yes” votes cast in the county. 

A total of 54,273 people voted in this referendum in the Premier County.  Turnout again was 44.4%. There were 690 invalid ballot papers, which gave a Total Valid Poll of 53,583. Tipperary’s Care Referendum  “No” vote was nearly 4.5% higher than the national “No” result of 73.93%.