The leader of Fine Gael has challenged three Ministers whom he describes as "the eurosceptics in Cabinet" to play a leading role in the drive for a Yes vote on the Treaty of Nice.
Mr Michael Noonan said he wanted to see the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, and the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, in the forefront of the campaign with their colleagues.
"I am concerned that the treaty referendum will be a close-run thing," Mr Noonan said. "I think it could be lost. And I think anybody in the main political parties who goes forward thinking that this is done and dusted already is making a serious mistake. It would be a disaster for us if the Nice Treaty was lost. The treaty is very important to the strategic future of Ireland."
Ireland's standing in Europe had suffered under the present Government. "There has been the row about regionalisation, there has been the row about the budgets. There is an emergence of what I would term eurosceptics in the Cabinet," Mr Noonan said.
"Ministers de Valera, Harney and McCreevy have either been at odds with Europe or have been advocating a Washington rather than a Brussels model, both in terms of economic growth and social commitment."
The primary responsibility for a successful referendum rested on the shoulders of the Government. "I want to see all members of the Cabinet, including the eurosceptics, taking a lead and making sure there is a Yes vote here," he said.
"I don't want Fianna Fail to be playing the two ends of the market, speaking out of different sides of their mouth and using different people to make these speeches. I want them to be up, forthright, in front of this campaign as the Government with the responsibility."
Speaking in Dublin at the start of his party's campaign for a Yes vote, Mr Noonan said Ms Harney had a huge responsibility.
"It's time she left her euroscepticism aside and came out in the forefront of this campaign to ensure that there is a Yes vote," he said. The referendum was an opportunity for Ireland to demonstrate its maturity. "We are the only country that is holding a referendum and, as a consequence, we have a singular responsibility on our shoulders on this occasion because, if the referendum is not passed in Ireland, regardless of the parliamentary processes elsewhere, then the Nice Treaty cannot be ratified," the Fine Gael leader said.
He noted that the great majority of candidate countries were small nations. "Rather than fearing additional members, we should welcome the fact that so many small nations in central and eastern Europe want to become members," Mr Noonan said. They would be compatible allies for Ireland in the negotiating chambers of the EU.
The FG foreign affairs spokesman and director of elections for the referendum, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, dismissed claims that participation in the Rapid Reaction Force would undermine Irish neutrality.
"The Rapid Reaction Force is no more a European army than our boys serving in Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission are a UN army. It would effectively be a regional peacekeeping force operating, as far as we are concerned, under a UN mandate."
Mr John Cushnahan MEPsaid there had been "scaremongering" about dangers to neutrality. "This is not true: any changes in the foreign and security area that are mentioned are, in fact, no advance whatsoever on what has already been decided by way of referendum in this country with the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties," he said.
It would help if the Taoiseach would indicate that after the referendum he would lead a debate on neutrality.