Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has insisted that the amendment to the Constitution to be put to the people in the forthcoming referendum on the EU treaty will not "seek to close the door" on future referendums on significant EU treaty changes.
In a speech accepting the European of the Year award yesterday Mr Ahern said the Government's wording would reflect the provisions of the new EU constitutional treaty.
It would not "seek to give the Government a blank cheque to take decisions on highly sensitive and important issues in the EU," he said, as Oireachtas approval would still be required.
It emerged last week that the Government had decided not to proceed with what was potentially the most contentious part of its proposed amendment.
This was a clause allowing the Government to sign up for the "simplified revision" of the EU treaty.
This would have allowed the Government to agree to changes to a wide range of EU policies without a referendum.
The wording now proposed would allow for the ratification of the treaty, including provisions allowing the State to agree to relinquish the national veto in some specified areas.
Mr Ahern described the EU treaty as "a creature of neither the left nor the right. It is up to governments to decide on and implement its concrete policies. The nature of these policies will depend on the play of political forces around the negotiating table."
He said that unlike most other EU states, Ireland had had referendums on all of the key developments in European integration.
"We have learned the lesson that people's understanding and engagement in where Europe is going is fundamentally linked to the amount of information they have and the quality of the national debate."
He said he wanted a "focused, balanced and serious debate based on the facts and what is in the constitution.
"I would like to hope that the debate could reflect the mature, modern, confident and economically successful Ireland that has both contributed to, and benefited from, European integration."
He said the outcome of the referendum in France later this month would "undoubtedly have a profound influence over the future fate of the European constitution".
However, he could not see how, in the event of a No vote, EU states would go back to square one and negotiate a new treaty.
He said his experience of Europe had reinforced his conviction "that the European Union is both the anchor of peace and stability on this continent and an increasingly powerful global actor in support of the UN's efforts to prevent conflict, build peace and fight poverty".