LOCAL REACTION:SUPPORTERS OF the Lisbon Treaty have expressed concern at the finding of the latest Irish Times/TNS mrbi opinion poll, which shows a significant swing towards the No side.
Canvassing for the treaty in Wicklow, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the headline figures of 35 per cent for the No side and 30 per cent for Yes were "disappointing". But, he said, "the campaign battle is far from over".
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny was similarly defiant yesterday. Asked about the figures showing a majority of his party's supporters standing against the treaty compared with 30 per cent in favour, Mr Kenny replied that "in the week before the first Nice referendum the polls showed a very strong majority in support of Nice 1 and that was actually rejected by the people on the day".
Declan Ganley, chairman of the No campaign group Libertas, said the five-point lead for the No side "should be taken with a grain of salt". He continued: "There are five full days of campaigning still to go in this campaign, and the referendum is still there for the taking by either side."
"We fully expect that, over the next few days, we will see a very cynical campaign from the other side to try and destroy their opponents. They are losing the battle of ideas, and if they try and make it a battle of personalities they will lose that too," Mr Ganley said in a statement.
A spokesmen for European Commission president José Manuel Barroso declined to comment on the poll but said it was important Irish people turned out to vote.
Slovenian foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said he remained confident. "I still believe that the Irish referendum will succeed. I'm very sure of that," he told reporters.
But other backers of the treaty made clear they were concerned.
"If the No vote wins there will be a cry of pain from the rest of the EU. We've been struggling to reform for years and there is no prospect of renegotiating the treaty," said British Liberal Andrew Duff, a pro-treaty MEP.
José Ignacio Torreblanca, senior research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said: "People are very scared in Brussels, because it is going to be a real mess if the Irish vote No." He added: "A No vote would unleash a sort of chain reaction . . . This is the last test of whether the EU of 27 can work with a single text for everybody."
Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney described the poll findings as "a wake-up call" for the parties on the Yes side. "We have been working hard at ground level, now we have to work even harder."
Speaking on a visit to Athlone she said: "The people recommending a No vote are people like Sinn Féin, Joe Higgins and Declan Ganley. They've never negotiated for Ireland. They've never batted for Ireland. They've never formed strategic alliances to help our national interest."
Dr Andy Storey of Afri (Action from Ireland) said the poll result undermined a commonly-held belief that the No vote could only win on a low turnout. "The result translates into 65 per cent turnout with the No side gaining more from more people voting."
Former taoiseach John Bruton, who now heads the European Commission delegation to the United States, said the treaty was "complex, probably unnecessarily so. But arguing that the treaty is complicated and hard to understand would probably not be a sufficient reason to reject something that 27 elected governments say they need to make their union work."
Leading No campaigner and former Green MEP Patricia McKenna said she was cautious about making projections in light of the poll as it was taken at the height of the farmers' dispute over World Trade Organisation negotiations.
Chairman of the Irish Anti-War Movement Richard Boyd Barrett said the swing to the No side was proof that "the bullying and hectoring campaign" of the Government and the treaty's supporters had backfired. - (additional reporting Reuters)