DUBLIN - Only one in four Irish people supports the new EU treaty, according to a poll Monday which could set alarm bells ringing in Brussels two years after voters torpedoed a previous blueprint. Irish backing for the treaty—essential for the measures aimed at streamlining decision-making to come into force—has halved over the past two years, the TNS mrbi poll in The Irish Times newspaper showed.Ireland, which rejected a previous European Union treaty in 2001 only to overturn its decision, is constitutionally bound to hold a referendum on the treaty agreed at a summit in Lisbon last month. The so-called reform treaty must be ratified by all 27 EU member states to come into force. It replaces the constitution which was sunk by French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005.
In Monday’s poll, 25 percent of Irish people said they would vote ‘yes’ to the treaty while 13 percent intended to vote ‘no’. Sixty-two percent said they did not know or had no opinion. The newspaper said that in a comparable poll on the proposed EU constitution in March 2005, 46 percent said they would vote ‘yes’ against 12 percent who would vote ‘no’ and 42 percent who had no opinion. ‘Given that the content of the two treaties is almost identical, the sharp drop in support for the treaty indicates that the referendum result could be very close,’ commented the paper.
