Ireland is set to hold its referendum on the European Union's reform treaty at the end of May or towards the middle of June, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said this evening.
Ireland is the only one of the EU's 27 member states to hold a referendum on the treaty which replaces the constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
A 'No' vote in Ireland could topple the whole project designed to end years of wrangling over reform of the bloc's institutions.
"Subject to any change, which I don't foresee at the moment, we would be talking about the very end of May or towards the middle of June - before the holiday season commences," Mr Ahern told RTE this evening.
Mr Ahern had previously said it would be held in the first half of 2008.
The exact date is still to finalised as Ireland will hold a separate referendum on children's rights and the government plans to keep the two national votes separate.
The EU treaty will give the bloc a long-term president, a more powerful foreign policy chief, more democratic decision-making and more say for European and national parliaments.
Mr Ahern said last month it was not a "revolutionary document", which may make it difficult to persuade Irish voters to say 'Yes'.
Opponents of the treaty fear it will endanger Ireland's traditional military neutrality, but the government has said it has enough safeguards to avoid that. Two recent opinion polls have shown that between 62 and 72 per cent of voters are undecided on how they will vote.
In 2001, Irish voters rejected the Nice Treaty designed to enable EU enlargement, forcing the government to hold a second vote that was widely criticised as undemocratic. A second vote is unlikely to be an option in 2008.