The amendment was approved by the electorate in a referendum on 4 October 2013, and then signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins on 1 November 2013.

[2] The intent of the amendment was to reduce the work load of the Supreme Court, allowing it to concentrate on a smaller number of more important cases.

[9] The government plans to reduce the number of Supreme Court judges from ten to five as sitting justices retire.

[18] Shatter also criticised RTÉ's coverage of the referendum, suggesting it avoided discussing the issue at all for fear of violating its obligation of neutrality.

[20] In a speech on 27 September, Chief Justice Susan Denham described the current backlog of court cases as "unsustainable" and the referendum as "an invitation for citizens to enable the superior courts to work better"; she did not explicitly advocate a yes vote, because separation of powers required judges to be impartial.

[21] Michael Williams, a solicitor opposed to the referendum, felt the speech "stepped across the line" into politics.

[22] The Law Society of Ireland, the professional body for solicitors, recommended that its members advise clients to vote yes.

[31] Lawyer Paul Anthony McDermott suggested the delays in hearing cases were caused by too many litigants rather than too few judges or courts.

[32] Diarmuid Rossa Phelan, a prominent Irish barrister and law professor at the School of Law at Trinity College Dublin, suggested that giving the Supreme Court absolute discretion to select which cases to hear was dangerous and would need to be monitored for mission creep.

[34] The Irish Times noted that "few voices" were "raised against the amendment" and that awareness of the issues was hampered by the prohibition of publicly funded advocacy campaigning; it recommended a Yes-vote.

[35] Ruadhan Mac Cormaic, legal affairs correspondent for the Times, reported that many lawyers were privately sceptical that the court would reduce the backlog, and that if its cases were perceived tediously technical it might struggle to recruit high-quality judges.

[41] The referendum returning officer issued a provisional result certificate of the votes, which was published in Iris Oifigiúil on 8 October 2013.

[45] President Michael D. Higgins signed the bill into law on 1 November 2013, after returning from a state visit to Central America.