The Department of Foreign Affairs is to distribute an initial 5,000 copies of a White Paper on the Lisbon Treaty to public representatives, libraries, citizens' information centres, local authorities, and to members of the public on request.
A dedicated website, www.lisbontreaty.ie, has also been put in place "in order to ensure that information concerning the Treaty is widely available", a Department statement said.
The cost of preparing, designing and publishing the White Paper was given as €50,000 which is to come from the Department's Lisbon Treaty information budget of €700,000.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin told a press conference at Government Buildings the White Paper as being published "in order to enhance public knowledge" of the treaty. A postcard on the treaty was also being sent to every household in the State.
He said the budget for the Referendum Commission headed by Mr Justice Frank Clarke was €4.2 million which represented a reduction of "about 16 per cent" since last year's referendum.
He said his entire effort since the last referendum was "really designed to reconfigure the debate in terms of Ireland and Europe". He pointed to the approach of the EU and its institutions to the crisis in Georgia, the global financial crisis, and issues of energy security and climate change as examples of the benefits of EU membership.
Insisting that the White Paper constituted information rather than propaganda, he said: "The material is absolutely about information, it's not about advocacy."
He added: "We are not asking anybody to vote Yes or No."
Asked if the Government would resign and calla general election in the event of another rejection of the treaty, Mr Martin said: "The Government will not resign."
The referendum was not about the Government - "it's about the future of the Irish people."
