The Government has said it is committed to holding a referendum on the EU constitution despite calls from a backbench TD for the proposed poll to be abandoned in the wake of the No votes in France and the Netherlands.
Yesterday Progressive Democrats TD Mae Sexton claimed a referendum would be "a waste of public money" and that the problems with the constitution needed to be addressed before any vote could be taken.
A spokesman for Tánaiste Mary Harney said Ms Sexton had been speaking in a personal capacity and that the Tánaiste fully supported the Government's position.
"The Government is continuing with its preparations for a referendum, and obviously we will be awaiting the outcome of the [ European summit] meeting in a fortnight's time and any bearing that may have on the referendum plans," he said.
However, Ms Sexton's intervention has prompted Opposition parties to claim that the Government is in disarray over the referendum.
Fine Gael called for any decision on the timing of a vote to be postponed until after a meeting of EU leaders in two weeks.
Ms Sexton said she was a strong supporter of the EU but that the democratic decision of France and the Netherlands had to be accepted.
"I think the Irish public would now see it as being both meaningless and wasteful if we were now to proceed with a referendum in Ireland," the Longford TD said.
Ms Sexton, who is a member of the Oireachtas subcommittee on European affairs, said European citizens had been "left behind" by the push from governments for greater integration.
Yesterday a spokesman for Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said that, while Ms Sexton was entitled to express her views, the Government had no plans to scrap the proposed referendum.
"The situation quite clearly is that the referendum will go ahead at present," he said. "At the present time Ireland is committed to ratifying the constitution, and there's no change to that."
In New York on Thursday Mr Ahern acknowledged that the No votes had created a "very difficult" situation.
"It's true to say these events are fairly seismic and we have to take stock as time moves on," he said.
Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Bernard Allen said Mr Ahern's comments appeared to cast doubt on a referendum.
"I believe the EU heads of government should assess the current situation, and that no decision on the timing of a referendum in Ireland should be made until this collective assessment is carried out," Mr Allen said.