LISBON TREATY:The Government will decide in the "near future" whether to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty before or after the summer, the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said. Jamie Smythin Brussels, and Harry McGee, Political Staff report.
Dermot Ahern also strongly denied the Government was delaying setting a referendum date because of concern over Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's appearances at the Mahon tribunal.
"It has nothing to do with that at all," Mr Ahern told reporters yesterday following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
He said the Cabinet would discuss the timing of the referendum tomorrow but other political parties and the Attorney General would have to be consulted. It also had to be decided whether to have a joint referendum on children's rights.
"I don't think a decision is imminent but if we were to have it before the summer we would have to make it in the near future," said Mr Ahern, who added that if a vote were to be held before the summer, legislation would have to be published before March 17th.
Once the law is passed allowing the holding of a referendum, the Minister for the Environment will make an order naming the date. The referendum must be held within a minimum period of 30 days of that order and a maximum period of 90 days.
Theoretically, the legislation could be passed and an order made as late as the end of April to give a minimum of 30 days. However, in the aftermath of the Nice II referendum in 2002, the Referendum Commission said it might be best to have a period of 90 days between its setting up and the referendum.
The commission is established on an earlier date, when the Bill is published and not when it is enacted. If the Government abides by the commission's recommendation, the Bill would need to be published in late February at the latest for an end-of-May referendum.
Fine Gael is concerned the Taoiseach is delaying setting a date until his appearances at the Mahon tribunal are concluded. "The suspicion on our part is that he thinks the negative stuff coming out of the tribunals may have a negative effect on a referendum campaign," said Fine Gael's director for the referendum campaign Gay Mitchell. "But we need a date now given the high level of 'don't knows' in opinion polls."
Dermot Ahern said that whether the referendum was held before or after the summer, there would be a long and sustained campaign by all the political parties. Fianna Fáil would shortly launch its own campaign by publishing a plain language guide to the Lisbon Treaty, creating a website and organising constituency meetings across the country for members.
The Taoiseach is due to address a special session of the National Forum on Europe tomorrow, which will announce its own nationwide tour.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Europe Dick Roche updated his EU colleagues on the Government's plans for the Irish referendum. Concern is growing at EU level that the referendum could be lost, plunging the EU into political crisis.