Minister for Youth and Children’s Affairs and local TD Katherine Zappone was an early arrival at the Citywest count centre and said the vote meant Ireland was “leading the world” on this issue.
But she said women would continue to travel every day or to take abortion pills bought online until the legislation was implemented.
“That’s going to continue until the lawmakers change the law,” she said.
Paying tribute to Minister for Health Simon Harris for his leadership on the issue, she said he had demonstrated “incredible commitment, particularly in the way in which he has moved this through a timeline that he set a long time ago”.
Tallies showed the vote shifted more in favour of a Yes in the boxes towards the west of the constituency, with some in the Tallaght area showing figures of up to 84 per cent Yes.
The vote in favour of the amendment was lower in areas such as Templogue, but was still in the region of 69-71 per cent Yes, a definitive majority.
Dublin South West Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the result was a political “earthquake”.
“It’s such a rejection, driven by young people and by women, of an Ireland of the past, of domination of the Catholic Church, of oppression of women,” he said.
“People are looking for a very different type of society and it should send a clear message. It’s a rejection of dishonest lies, of the conservative right in Ireland which has had so much power for so long that their time is gone.
“It’s young people’s time, it’s women’s time now and I think it will put on the agenda other questions relating to the separation of Church and State, most immediately the question of objective sex education, but the broader question of church control of schools and church control of hospitals.
“I think it’s clear now that that isn’t reflective of the society that we have and we have to move on.”
