The Cabinet is expected today during a meeting in Co Donegal to clear the way for the holding of the second referendum on the Nice Treaty in late October. However, the formal announcement may not be made for some days.
Speaking in Killarney, Co Kerry, after the two-day meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said "some tidying up" needed to carried out before a date could be set.
Under the Constitution, the Government is required to give a minimum of 30 days notice of a referendum, although Mr Ahern appears to favour Friday, October 25th.
The Taoiseach promised it would be Fianna Fáil's biggest European campaign since 1972, and said the party would shortly begin an intensive door-to-door canvass, backed by posters and other methods.
The Killarney meeting had helped to remove any reluctance of Fianna Fáil TDs, senators and MEPs to throw their weight behind a Yes campaign on this occasion, he indicated.
"There is nobody saying that this isn't important. We had to work hard enough to motivate people over the last couple of months. People understood the importance of this now," he said.
The parliamentary party was addressed by pollster Mr Des Byrne of Behaviour and Attitudes, and Kerry Group chairman Mr Denis Brosnan, during its final two sessions yesterday morning.
In his presentation, Mr Byrne, who has carried out extensive private polling for Fianna Fáil in recent years, drew on polling carried out by his company in late July, although he gave no actual figures to the meeting.
Later, Mr Ahern said the company's figures were "broadly in line" with recent newspaper polls, which show that 40 per cent of those surveyed said they intended to vote Yes, 30 per cent No, with 30 per cent undecided. Voters were making it clear that they wanted more understandable information. "They also want to believe that they are doing the right thing by themselves and the country," said the Government Chief Whip, Ms Mary Hanafin.
Early polling showed that voters were coming to understand the potential disadvantages the country could suffer if there is a second rejection of the treaty, said Mr Ahern, although he did not produce figures to back this up.
Fianna Fáil was prepared to "spend several hundreds of thousands" on the campaign. "We are prepared to spend this, even though this is money that we don't have," Mr Ahern told The Irish Times.
Appearing to reject a weekend poll, Mr Ahern said in his experience, the day selected made "no damn difference". Undecided voters tended to remain undecided and stay at home, he said.
He rejected once more suggestions that Fianna Fáil misled voters during the election campaign. It was "just not true" that voters were not aware that more difficult economic times were ahead before they voted.
Ireland's economic growth had dipped to 0.6 per cent in the last quarter of 2001, compared to 11.6 per cent in the first quarter of that year. "By last Christmas, everyone knew where we were," he said.
Early this year, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, called in all Department heads and warned that budgets would have to be kept. "That letter was leaked, probably by Charlie himself, so people knew."
He said he did not accept that voters had begun to turn against Fianna Fáil.
"The difference between me and others is that I am out there everyday listening to what people are saying," he said.
In his presentation, Mr Brosnan, who pioneered the development of Kerry Group, said it would be "an absolute disaster" if the referendum proposal was rejected. "People were very impressed by what he said," Ms Hanafin said
