Irish EU vote unclear: poll

  • 2002-10-03
DUBLIN

The possible outcome of next month's Irish referendum on endorsing the European Union's plan to invite up to 12 mostly ex-communist nations to join the bloc remained unclear, with almost one-third of voters still undecided.

According to an Irish Times/MRBI poll released Sept. 28, 37 percent intend to vote in favor of the treaty in the Oct. 19 referendum compared with 25 percent who will vote against it. The outcome depends on how the 32 percent still undecided will vote. The rest of those polled said they would not vote.

In 2001, Ireland sent shock waves through European capitals when it rejected the Nice Treaty, named after the southern French city where it was hammered out, by 54 percent.

The treaty - a package of reforms to enable the European Union to admit up to 12 new countries - has to be ratified by all 15 member states by the end of the year. Only in Ireland is it subject to a referendum.

There is still widespread confusion surrounding the treaty. The poll found that just 16 percent had a good understanding of the issues, but 19 percent did not know what the treaty was about.

The new poll will cause concern among treaty supporters as it is a more pessimistic result than a similar Irish Times poll undertaken three weeks before last year's rejection.

At that time, 52 percent were in favor, 21 percent against and the rest had no opinion; but the vote turned out to be a "no" after less than 35 percent bothered to vote.

With public clamor about corruption allegations and controversy surrounding budget spending cutbacks, there are fears there could be a big protest vote against the government.

The government's efforts to secure a "yes" vote received a setback last week when the campaign director for Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail party resigned.

P.J. Mara was found to have failed to cooperate with a judicial corruption tribunal which reported Sept. 26 that former Foreign Minister Ray Burke received hundreds of thousands of dollars in corrupt payments in the 1970s and 1980s.

A former government press secretary and member of the country's Upper House of Parliament, Mara is a close political ally of Ahern.

He was also campaign director for Fianna Fail during last May's general election.

The pollsters interviewed 1,000 people at 100 sampling points throughout the country Sept. 23-24.