Yes side is stunned and baffled by voters' decision

The rejection of the Nice Treaty by voters left the Government and the Yes campaign stunned and in search of explanations, while the No lobby rejoiced.

The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said it showed that the Irish people had legitimate concerns about the EU's future direction. "The people have made their decision and we must respect that," she said. "The result is disappointing not just for ourselves, but also for our fellow EU counterparts and particularly the applicant countries in Eastern Europe. Now we need to have a period of reflection in order to assess the implications arising from the result."

But the Louth Fine Gael TD, Mr Brendan McGahon, said the No vote "showed the huge amount of ignorance of political affairs in this country and underlines the need for politics to be taught in schools."

He added: "I think people are totally politically unaware and are more interested in watching Coronation Street or Fair City and are not living in the real world. It is a classic irony that a country which has benefited most from Europe denies the opportunity to other less privileged European countries."

Independent MEP Mrs Dana Rosemary Scallon said the Irish people had restored their democratic rights.

"The people have defended the Irish sovereignty and independence and used their constitutional right to do so."

Fine Gael's director of elections, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, expressed disappointment at the result. "The Government has taken the electorate for granted and has now paid for its complacency," he said. Senior ministers had sent confusing, Eurosceptic and conflicting messages to the electorate.

Labour leader Mr Ruairi Quinn said the outcome was "deeply disappointing." Responsibility must rest with Fianna Fail and the PDs, and particularly with the Taoiseach, whose handling of the Nice referendum had been incompetent and inept.

The Green MEP for Dublin, Ms Patricia McKenna, said it was clear the Nice Treaty could not be ratified and therefore must fall. "It is time now to have a public debate on what people really want. The Government must go back to the EU with the people's mandate and demand that this seriously-flawed treaty be abandoned."

Mr Anthony Coughlan, secretary of the National Platform Group, which opposed the treaty, said: "We must now have the debate on the future of the EU which it was promised would happen after Nice was approved. It is indeed shameful that the first response of various Irish commentators to the people's verdict on the Nice Treaty is to speak openly of how they are going to try to get the people to change their minds."

The Nice Treaty was "dead", he said. "It would be utterly foolish of either the Irish or other EU governments to think that they can fob off the Irish people with declarations and political promises about the future, and then try to send around the Nice Treaty again without making any change to it," he said.

The Socialist Party TD, Mr Joe Higgins, said the political establishment had been sent a powerful message by "the small people of Ireland. The entire political establishment, as well as the Catholic Church and the leadership of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions, were ranged behind this treaty," he said.

"Its rejection shows how removed they are from the genuine concerns and anxieties of ordinary people in relation to the treaty's implications, particularly with regard to proposals for the privatisation of public services."