The Green Party has rejected claims by the Government that the Nice Treaty is specifically concerned with the enlargement of the EU.
At this morning's launch of the Party's campaign for a No vote, Ms Patricia McKenna, MEP, said that enlargement was dealt with in only eight pages of the 80 page treaty and is contained in Declaration 20, which is attached to the treaty, and, as such, is not legally biding.
Despite pressure from the Government, she said, there were many people in Brussels that hoped the Irish electorate would reject the treaty in next months vote as it was felt by many people that it was a "bad treaty."
"There are other ways of enlarging Europe," she said, "particularly through the Amsterdam Treaty.
"The changes outlined [in the Treaty] will come into being regardless of whether enlargement takes place.
"Most of the Nice Treaty concerns itself with institutional changes that don not directly affect enlargement."
Mr Trevor Sargent, leader of the Green Party, said despite the way the Government was portraying anti-Nice parties, the Greens were in favour of enlargement and said their principal concern was that of neutrality which, again, despite Government advocacy, had not been dealt with adequately in the Seville Declaration earlier this year.
The Declaration, he said, was a confidence trick which will still allow Ireland participate in combat missions with the EU's Rapid Reaction Force.
"It is in the interest of peripheral and [applicant] countries to reject the Treaty," he said.
"While it should not be the case, the questions of who you trust is now looming large in people's mind.
The party also asked people to reject the Treaty, arguing that it would mean the loss of Ireland's right to automatically have a Commissioner once the number of countries exceeded 27.