The Government may approve the Bill that will give the go-ahead for the Lisbon Treaty referendum at its Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, according to reliable sources.
The Irish Timesunderstands that the Referendum Commission will be allotted a budget of €5 million for advertising and publishing during an expected 12-week campaign.
The text of the proposed legislation is with the Opposition parties but it is likely that the consultation will have been completed in time for the Cabinet meeting.
If that happened, said the sources, the Bill will be published in the first week of March, allowing for a referendum in late May or early June, but most likely on May 29th.
The growing intensity of the debate was evident yesterday with a number of events connected to the treaty.
The Taoiseach launched Fianna Fáil's campaign website - www.Vote4europe.ie - in Dublin. The main Government party has also produced an eight-page pro-treaty pamphlet which it will distribute to every home.
Bertie Ahern said that the EU was no longer a union of three or six or 15 but one of 27 states.
"If you grow by multiples of 400 per cent you obviously have to make changes to the structure. It is a framework, a model, to bring Europe from where it has been, to where it will be in the future," he said.
The Institute of International and European Affairs launched a series of books in Dublin yesterday, giving the most comprehensive and scholarly information to date on the treaty. It also launched a blog called Europe 2.0 on its website www.iiea.com.
Institute researcher Peadar Ó Broin edited the books, the most popular of which will be a consolidated 347-page version. It will allow the treaty to be read as a stand-alone document.
Mr Ó Broin said: "We wanted to have an intelligible text. The treaty as it stands reads basically as 200 pages of amendments. It is fairly unintelligible if taken in isolation and read as a stand-alone document. Part of our remit was to be factual and independent. These books will not just benefit partisans of the Yes side but will also benefit partisans on the No side. It's a factual document that can be looked up by anybody."
Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche said the publication refuted the suggestion that there was was a dearth of information available on the treaty. He rejected claims that the 22-page Foreign Affairs publication on the treaty was biased or one-sided.
Asked to respond to Sinn Féin's claims that his recent comments amount to scaremongering, Mr Roche said it was his obligation to point out what could be lost if Ireland rejected the treaty.
"If we decide, for no good reason, to destroy what has been a huge effort for seven years, I think it would send out question marks about Ireland.
"We won't be kicked out of the Union but it will damage the reputation that we have as a country that is at the heart of Europe," he said.
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