Ireland's Minister of State with
responsibility for Integration, Conor Lenihan, said Saturday it unlikely that
the country would stage another referendum on the European Union reform treaty
in the wake of its rejection by voters this week, reported dpa.
On the morning news show of the national broadcaster RTE, Lenihan said he could
not rule out the possibility of a new vote being held, but he then cautioned
there was a risk of even more damage being done if the Lisbon Treaty is put up
for a second vote.
Lenihan warned that Ireland is now "extremely isolated" in Europe as the only EU member to have rejected the treaty.
Lenihan's comments came as Irish politicians - both those who favoured and were
opposed to the treaty - took stock of the referendum result in which the treaty
was rejected by a margin of 110,000 votes.
On Friday evening, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the government
accepted and respected the verdict of voters, but he declined to rule out the
possibility of another vote.
In a comment to RTE, Cowen said, "I'm not ruling anything in or out or up
or down."
Cowen will be meeting his colleagues at the EU summit in Brussels next week as
European leaders ponder what to do next in the wake of the Irish voters'
rejection of the treaty.
Declan Ganley, president of the Libertas group that led the no campaign, said he
was horrified that the possibility of another referendum was even being raised.