IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Michael Brennan

Sunday November 11 2012

THE Government can breathe a sign of relief that it has got a result from the children’s referendum campaign.

But it is a far from complete victory, with the low turnout, the defeats in several constituencies and the Supreme Court judgement slamming its €1.1m information campaign as unfair and unbalanced.

It is a reminder that getting the attention of the public is harder than ever – and especially so when there are few compelling arguments to rouse their passions.

The key message of the Government’s campaign was that the children’s rights referendum would help to protect vulnerable children. But the low turnout figures show that this did not strike a chord with the public.

Many people seem to have decided that whatever about vulnerable children, their children were fine and therefore there was no need for them to turn…