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 out and vote. Put bluntly, there was nothing in it for them and they had shopping and other things to do on Saturday. If the referendum was about cutting child benefit, you could safely predict a much better turnout.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.