Mayo Senator canvassed for ‘Yes’ vote despite voting ‘No’ in referendums

MAYO Senator Lisa Chambers has confirmed that she canvassed for a ‘yes’ vote in the recent referendums despite voting ‘no’ to the Family and Care Amendments.

A video posted by Fianna Fáil on X (formerly Twitter) showed Senator Chambers canvassing for a ‘yes’ vote with other party colleagues.

The former TD and Mayo County Councillor has also been pictured on social media canvassing for a ‘yes’ vote prior to the referendums, which were heavily rejected by the people of Mayo.

_{Fianna Fail Senator Lisa Chambers canvassing in Dublin prior to the referendums}

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fianna Fáil (@fiannafail)

_{Fianna Fáil politicians canvassing in Dublin before the referendum}

Senator Chambers, who is running for the European Parliament elections in June, said she changed her mind on the Family amendment during the course of the referendum campaign and never supported the Care amendment.

She said she wanted to include carers in the Constitution, saying that the intentions behind the questions were positive but ‘the wording didn't meet the threshold to vote for change’.

“Yes, I went out on one canvass at the start of the campaign a few weeks back as I was supportive of a yes vote on the ‘Family’ question initially, but I changed my mind towards the end of the campaign after listening to the debate as the uncertainty grew over the legal consequences of a yes vote, particularly after reading the AG (Attorney General) advice,” Senator Chambers said.

She also took issue with the removal of the word ‘mother’ from the Constitution by the proposed adoption of the Care amendment.

“I was never supportive of the Care amendment for the simple reason that it would have removed the word ‘mother’ from the constitution, not because I don’t want carers recognised in our constitution, because I do.”

The Care amendment would have removed wording from the constitution regarding a woman’s ‘duties in the home’ and added new wording saying that the State would ‘strive’ to support carers.

The Family amendment sought to afford constitutional recognition to families founded upon ‘other durable relationships’.

Voters in Mayo rejected the Family referendum by a 78.5 percent majority (32,807 votes)– the sixth-highest ‘no’ vote of any constituency in Ireland.

Mayo also voted resoundingly against the Care referendum with a 75.5 percent ‘no’ vote (31,565 votes).

The constituency recorded a turnout of 43 percent in both referendums, with 41,816 cast in the Family referendum and 41,782 cast in the Care referendum.  

Mayo recorded a higher percentage of ‘no votes’ than the national poll, which saw 67.7 percent voting against the care referendum and 73.9 percent voting against the family referendum.

Aontú Mayo representative and local election candidate, Paul Lawless, who canvassed for a ‘no’ vote, accused the government of being ‘totally disconnected’ from the public in the aftermath of the referendums.