Cork TD and leader of the Independent Ireland Party, Michael Collins, has hailed the rejection of the Government’s proposed changes to the constitution as “an event of generational and transformative significance that will echo all the way into the local and general election campaign.”

“An agenda that was inherently anti-woman, anti-carer, anti-disability rights and anti-marriage was resoundingly rejected by the vast majority of people who saw through the charlatanism of a government that has done nothing but relentlessly antagonise, infuriate and patronise people for the last number of years,” said Deputy Collins.

“The credibility gap that already existed between what this government says it wants for people and what it does in real terms has widened to become a chasm. People have had enough. They want government out and they want issues that actually impact their lives and the lives of their families brought in from the margins of political debate and returned to the centre stage where they belong.”