Women challenge result of children’s referendum

The Government has been left embarrassed after two women began a legal challenge aimed at overturning the result of the children’s referendum.

The women — Joanna Jordan, of Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, who campaigned for a no vote, and Nancy Kennelly, a nursing home resident in Askeaton, Co Limerick, who voted yes — claim that the Coalition’s use of public money to fund an unbalanced information campaign wrongfully affected the outcome.

The opposition said the legal challenge had been all but inevitable given the Government’s failure to mount an impartial information campaign.