The Lisbon referendum result will be “close”, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said in Dublin at the party’s final press conference of the campaign.
Recalling the close result in the divorce referendum of 1995, he expressed the hope that Labour would once again be on the winning side.
Labour spokesman on Europe Joe Costello TD said: “We started this campaign earlier than anybody else.” Labour had its first press conference on December 12th last year, “the day before the treaty was signed”.
Labour MEP for Dublin Proinsias De Rossa warned that a valuable opportunity to enhance the rights of workers, women and children would be lost if the treaty was defeated. Pointing to the change of government in Italy he said: “Berlusconi is not going to agree to more rights for the citizens of Europe.”
Asked for his prediction of the vote, Mr Gilmore said: “I think the result will be close, and I have felt that right through the campaign.”
Comparing the Lisbon campaign with the 1995 divorce referendum, he said: “That result was very close too. I hope like that one, that we’re on the right side of the line.”
“This has been probably the most active referendum campaign that we’ve seen in this country for some time.” He thanked the news media for its “very extensive coverage of the various arguments” and doing “a very good job and generally speaking a very fair job”.
Labour had set out to make “a positive case” for the treaty, he said.
“We can stand over every word, every press statement that we issued, every argument that we have made. We have told the truth about what is in the Lisbon Treaty, and we have given an honest opinion as to how we felt it would affect this country.
He said he accepted that the treaty was "a complex document and that the wording does not lend itself to simple explanation".
"However, I also believe that there is now sufficient information available to the public to allow voters to make an informed decision on Thursday."