Reaction/No campaign: Irish people "will live to regret" voting Yes in the citizenship referendum, the Labour party's justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, has said.
Speaking at the Custom House on Saturday, Mr Costello said he was saddened by the result. He called on the Government to regularise the situation of thousands of Irish-born children with non-national parents who "are living in a limbo situation".
"This is most pressing, and now the opportunity is there to deal with it," he said.
Mr Costello said the referendum was a "rushed affair", and something as important as fundamental change in the entitlement to citizenship should have been dealt with "in a more thorough and comprehensive fashion".
He said there was not nearly enough consultation, information or analysis of the long-term implications. None of the recommended procedures for a constitutional referendum were in place.
Reacting to the huge turnout of 60 per cent for the referendum, Mr Costello said he was sad that people would turn out in such numbers to "deny children a right to Irish citizenship".
Ms Rosanna Flynn, from the Campaign Against the Racist Referendum (CARR), expressed her shock at how big the Yes vote was. "We feel that the whole electorate has been really manipulated. It is a very sad day for Ireland that a racist referendum was held, and so much feeling was whipped up."
CARR said there were "huge discrepancies in the money spent by both the Yes and the No camp".
Mr Mark Grehan of CARR said: "The Yes campaign spent €280,000 between them, while we only had the resources to spend €7,000. We do not believe that this is a democratic way to run a referendum; we do not accept that it is fair that a referendum can be bought by such huge resources; we believe that a more equitable system is required.
"We are very disappointed by the result; we believe that this referendum is unjust and unnecessary and will only lead to increased racism in our country, and we are very worried that the Irish people have ignored our past and rejected our future."