Cabinet meets over Nice Treaty campaign

The Cabinet met in Dublin this morning to discuss the Government's campaign for a Yes vote in the Nice Treaty referendum.

The vote is less than three weeks away and there are fears the electorate will use the ballot to voice their disquiet about the handling of the public finances and the revelations of the Flood tribunal's second interim report.

Ireland's highest-ranking European Commission official Mr David O'Sullivan said yesterday that EU enlargement would be thrown into disarray if Ireland rejected the Nice Treaty on October 19th.

The latest MRBI opinion poll on the subject, published in last Saturday's Irish Times, shows 37 per cent of voters intend to vote for the Nice Treaty; 25 per cent will vote against; 32 per cent do not know how they will vote; and 7 per cent say they will not vote.

This is a narrower margin of support than was shown in a poll just days before the last referendum. That Irish Times/MRBI poll suggested 45 per cent would vote Yes and 28 per cent No, with 27 per cent having no opinion.