The Taoiseach has launched a sharp attack on elements of the anti-Nice campaign, accusing them of disseminating "shameful and distasteful" propaganda and making "false and spurious" claims on the immigration issue.
Pointing out that it was his first time to address this issue in the context of the referendum, he said opponents of Nice were falsely claiming that "by voting Yes to Nice, we will be allowing tens if not hundreds of thousands of people from the applicant eastern European states to come here and work".
He told the Institute of European Affairs in Dublin: "From the claims made by the No side, one would have the impression of thousands of eastern Europeans waiting with bated breath for enlargement to take place, having chartered ships and planes to come here as soon as possible to take our jobs. This claim is simply not true. It is a shameful and distasteful piece of propaganda. There are no boat and plane-loads of eastern Europeans waiting to invade our shores.
"All the available research suggests that there is no basis for believing this will happen now or in the future."
The case for a Yes vote in the Nice referendum was "overwhelming", according to Ireland's European Commissioner, Mr David Byrne. "I do not believe for one moment that the majority of Irish people want to turn their backs on the EU or, more particularly, on enlargement. If I am correct in my belief, then the case for voting Yes in the referendum is overwhelming," he said, in a speech prepared for a Fine Gael meeting on Nice.
Mr Ahern, meanwhile, noted predictions of mass immigration from Greece, Spain and Portugal when they joined the European community had failed to materialise. "The countries which are more likely to receive eastern European immigrants are those such as Germany and Austria that border the new member-states."
He claimed the fact of the matter was that, enlargement would "strengthen, not weaken" the economies of the applicant states. "As such, there is no reason for the mass migration claims being pronounced by the Euro-sceptics. As the candidate countries grow stronger economically, so can they succeed and thrive and so will the wider Europe be safer and more secure economically, socially and politically."
Mr Ahern was speaking at the launch of a briefing pack compiled by the institute, entitled "The Nice Treaty and Enlargement - Explaining the Issues" and consisting of a series of explanatory leaflets on different aspects of the treaty. The launch was attended by the Labour Party leader, Mr Quinn, the former Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton of Fine Gael, Mr John Gormley of the Green Party, the PD Minister of State, Mr Tom Parlon, Fianna Fáil TDs Mr Peter Kelly and Mr Pat Carey, the former European Commissioner, Mr Richard Burke, and members of the diplomatic corps.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Mr Ahern said he had accepted that some elements of the No campaign were not highlighting the immigration issue. "A number of them disassociated themselves from this shameful way and I acknowledged that today," he said.
Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley told The Irish Times: "It is disappointing that the Taoiseach can claim that we are making these wild allegations that have nothing to do with the treaty.
"As far as the Green Party is concerned, we have disassociated ourselves completely from those claims." The Greens were "committed Europeans but we favour a different model of Europe".