Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said this evening he was confident the Government would receive assurances at a European Union summit this week to ease Irish voters' concerns over the Lisbon reform treaty and allow a referendum on it to go ahead.
But some countries are not yet satisfied by a draft text outlining the legal guarantees that the Government is seeking to help ensure Irish voters do not for the second time reject the treaty, intended to streamline EU decision making.
The Government submitted the draft text today on issues such as taxation, abortion and military neutrality. It also wants guarantees it will continue to have a representative on the executive European Commission.
The Government has identified these as areas of concern for voters who opposed the treaty in a referendum in June last year and is widely expected to hold a new referendum in late September or October.
"The response has been very positive so far," Mr Martin told reporters of the draft text after meeting other the EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
But the draft does not address the concerns of some nations which fear the guarantees could undermine the validity of ratification procedures already completed in most other EU member states.
One EU diplomat involved in preparing the two-day EU summit, or Council, which starts on Thursday said the draft was "still very vague".
"The legal status of the guarantees is still being discussed and there will be a meeting at level of ambassadors to look into the legal form of these guarantees," Bruno Le Maire, a French junior minister, told reporters.
"The talks are not finished and a decision will only be made at the end of the week at the European Council."
EU ministers will meet in Brussels tomorrow to discuss the draft text submitted by Dublin.
Mr Martin said Ireland wanted to "copper fasten" any agreement reached this week into a so-called legal protocol in the next EU accession treaty signed when a new country joins the 27-nation union - expected to be Croatia next year.