PRESS CONFERENCE:THE GOVERNMENT has admitted that it failed to run an effective referendum campaign on the Lisbon Treaty and vowed to explore all options to allow it to enter into force in Europe.
But Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said yesterday that Ireland would not be able to provide its European partners with a definitive solution at next month's EU summit.
"It is far too early to be prescriptive on the future," said Mr Martin, who announced that the Government would shortly begin a national consultation exercise, co-ordinated by the Oireachtas, to explore all options open to it to ratify the treaty.
Mr Martin said that the options open to the Government included a controversial proposal to ratify parts of the Lisbon Treaty through the Oireachtas rather than by referendum.
He said that the Government would have to study the legal issues arising from this option, while also refusing to rule out the prospect of holding a second referendum.
"What we must do, however, is first to fully respect people's concerns, secondly, to seek to understand the motivation behind them and thirdly, to reflect deeply together on how we can best respond to them," said Mr Martin, who added that any suggestions that there is a clear and simple course to take on Lisbon "are not grounded in reality".
He also admitted that the Government had failed during the referendum campaign to properly engage the public on Lisbon or Europe and signalled that reform was needed.
"It is clear we did not succeed in communicating effectively. The idea that we do a crash course on Europe during a referendum campaign is something we must avoid. We need to communicate Europe better than we have done," said Mr Martin, who added that he would consult with Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe on possible curriculum changes in the schools system to create greater awareness about the EU.
Mr Martin was speaking at the launch of a Government commissioned study on the Lisbon referendum, which found that 42 per cent of No voters said that they rejected the treaty because they either didn't understand it or because they hadn't got enough information about it.
"People clearly had worries about issues that came up during the campaign. These included worries about the possible loss of influence for Ireland, corporation tax and neutrality.
"The report also shows that the Irish commissioner; abortion; corporation tax; neutrality, conscription and workers' rights were among the main issues that gave rise to concern among voters," said Mr Martin, who denied that the Government was "dithering" over what to do next.
He said that the Government would be in a position to consider its next move when a national debate was completed in two or three months.
This means that Taoiseach Brian Cowen will not be able to tell his EU partners at the October European Council meeting in Brussels how Ireland plans to ratify the treaty.
Mr Martin said that he acknowledged that the clear desire of the other 26 EU states is to move ahead and to ratify the treaty.
But he said that Ireland's EU partners also had a "strongly shared wish both for Ireland to remain fully engaged in the union".
European Parliament president Hans-Gert Pottering welcomed the publication of the survey, saying that it would make an important contribution to the debate that would take place in Ireland. However, he also noted there was no easy solution to the problem.
"One thing emerges very clearly. The reasons for the No vote are complex and no single issues dominated," said Mr Pottering, who said the European Parliament was willing to play a role to ensure that the Lisbon Treaty and EU issues could be better communicated to the public.