Decisive two-to-one majority says Yes to Lisbon

THE RESULT:THE LISBON Treaty referendum was backed by 67.1 per cent of those who voted. There was a turnout of 58 per cent, up from last year's 53.1 per cent.

A total of 1,214,268 people, or 38.8 per cent of the electorate, voted Yes, while 594,606, or 19 per cent, of the electorate voted No. The number of spoiled votes was 7,224.

The constituency with the highest Yes vote was Dublin South, with 81.7 per cent in favour, with parts of Rathfarnham registering 90 per cent support.

Dublin South was closely followed by Dún Laoghaire, with 81.2 per cent in favour.

Dún Laoghaire had a turnout of 70.7 per cent.

Only the two Donegal constituencies had a No majority, with 51.5 per cent in North East and 50.3 per cent in South West voting against the treaty.

Dublin and the rest of Leinster recorded a 69 per cent Yes. In Munster, the figure was 67.2 per cent and in Connacht it was 65.2 per cent, while Ulster recorded a 55.3 per cent Yes vote.

Last year’s vote in Mayo, 61.7 per cent No and 38.3 per cent Yes, was exactly reversed to produce 61.7 per cent in favour and 38.3 per cent against this time round.

Connemara had changed its mind, Minister for Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív noted at the count centre in Salthill, Galway, at the weekend.

Middle-class Galway opted to support the treaty. Fine Gael Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames paid tribute at the count centre to the business leaders in the West who had taken part in pro-treaty campaigns.

Last year, Declan Ganley’s Libertas campaign had received strong local support in his home community of Brierfield, near Abbeyknockmoy, in Galway East. However, tally figures at the New Inn count centre showed that the voters there had also had a change of heart, with 237 votes for the treaty compared to 103 against.

Voting in the south mirrored the trend nationally with turnout increasing and the Yes campaign upping its vote significantly to an almost two-to-one winning margin.

Increased voter turnout was evident across all 12 Dáil constituencies that make up the Euro constituency of Ireland South.

In four of the five Cork constituencies, the Yes side won by margins of two-to-one or more.

This included Cork South Central, the constituency of Minister for Foreign Affairs and Fianna Fáil campaign director, Micheál Martin. There, last year’s 55.1 per cent to 44.9 per cent defeat of the Yes side was transformed into a 66.8 per cent to 33.2 per cent victory.

In both Kerry constituencies, the Yes campaign won comfortably by around 30 per cent, as they did in Limerick, Tipperary South and Waterford, all of which had voted against Lisbon I by margins of between five per cent and 10 per cent.

Meanwhile in Dublin, the constituency with the highest percentage No vote in the first Lisbon Treaty referendum, Dublin South West, moved from 65.1 per cent No to 58.9 per cent in favour this time around.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said his own Dublin West constituency was a very socially differentiated area and the social divide was “still there, but there was a 20 per cent swing everywhere regardless of social standing”.

In Mr Lenihan’s local Castleknock area, the electorate voted three-to-one in favour of the treaty.

His constituency rival, Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said there was a 23 per cent turnaround in her own Mulhuddart area, where there was a 34 per cent Yes in 2008 and 57 per cent Yes this time.

In Dublin Mid-West there were pockets of No, according to Labour TD Joanna Tuffy, who said south Lucan had an 80 per cent Yes vote and Lucan village was five-to-one in favour, but north Clondalkin had a strong No vote and Quarryvale was 70 per cent against.

“The argument about the EU is not weighing with them,” she said. “There is talk of cuts, such as in community partnerships. They don’t talk about job creation.”

However, Ms Tuffy pointed to one positive in the No vote. “The good thing is that people are voting . . . In the 1999 local elections only 11 per cent turned out, but now the turnout is up to 50 per cent at election time in north Clondalkin.”

Dublin South-Central constituency voted No last time by 61 per cent to 39 per cent, but on this occasion there was a reversal, with 58 per cent Yes and 42 per cent No. Turnout went up from 52 per cent to 56 per cent.

Dublin South East voted strongly in favour of the treaty in June 2008 and last Friday voters in this largely middle-class constituency gave an even stronger endorsement at 79 per cent to 21 per cent. Turnout here also increased, from 50 per cent to 55 per cent.

(Additional reporting by Lorna Siggins, Barry Roche, Marie O’Halloran and Deaglán de Bréadún)