Fine Gael and Labour last night welcomed the Government's proposals for the ratification of the EU constitutional treaty and indicated they would support them in the Dáil.
The Green Party, however, expressed concern that the so-called "triple-lock" mechanism protecting Irish neutrality was not being enshrined in the constitution, and said this would influence its members when they decided at the end of June whether to support the treaty.
Sinn Féin demanded that the Government now set a date for the referendum.
Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman Bernard Allen said Fine Gael supports the EU constitution and believes that it is in Ireland's interests to ratify it. "The EU constitution brings greater transparency, democracy and efficiency to the enlarged EU of 25 states and well over 400 million people.
"I broadly support the approach being taken by the Government on this important issue, and I look forward to the Dáil debate on this legislation and to a detailed analysis of these proposals."
He said the Referendum Commission should be set up quickly to start public debate. Other bodies such as the National Forum on Europe and the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs should also be given adequate resources to allow them promote debate.
"I also believe that the question of the timing of the EU constitution referendum in Ireland should be kept open until the results of the upcoming referenda in France and Holland are known," he said.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte welcomed the fact that the Government had taken his party's concerns into account and dropped two contentious elements that had initially been proposed for inclusion in the referendum proposal.
"In the course of consultations with the Government about proposed wording for a constitutional referendum on the EU constitution, we indicated that we would wish to support the referendum and that we were in favour of adopting the EU constitution," he said.
He said Labour had been anxious to ensure that future changes to fundamental aspects of the EU constitution could also be the subject of referendums here.
"Secondly, we believed it was vital that no change proposed now would have the effect of undermining the so-called "triple lock" in relation to defence policy, which ensures that Ireland only becomes involved in military actions on the basis of a UN request, a Government decision, and Oireachtas approval."
He said he would now ask the Labour Party conference this weekend to adopt a motion to support the campaign for a Yes vote.
Green Party chairman John Gormley said he was disappointed the Government had not included the triple lock (UN mandate, Government sanction and Oireachtas approval) in the Bill. He said his party welcomed the changes to the previous wording, which had been revealed in The Irish Times. These changes were due in part to that revelation, which he said had been facilitated by the Green Party.
He said enshrining the triple-lock in the constitution "would have provided some reassurance to our party members that the last vestiges of our so-called neutrality would not be eroded. As it now stands the Defence Acts can and probably will be amended to remove this safeguard of a UN mandate".
Mr Gormley said the party still has major misgivings about the inclusion of clauses allowing the Government to move to more qualified majority voting in certain areas without any referendum.
He also said the Government should not proceed with a referendum if France voted No this weekend.
Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald said now that the proposals had been published it was time to set a date for the referendum. "Sinn Féin is calling for the referendum to be put before the people this Autumn."