ESTIMATED COST:THE COST of staging the Lisbon Treaty referendum - voting and the count - is estimated at €12 million.
Ireland is the only EU memberstate having a plebiscite on the issue and a Department of Finance spokesman said yesterday that the estimate was based on the cost of previous referendums, allowing for inflation and other cost increases.
This figure will cover payments to returning officers and polling clerks for voting day and the count, including their expenses, as well as the cost of hiring premises, printing ballot papers, transport of ballot boxes, etc.
It's just one of the cost items involved in this major democratic exercise where the electorate are asked to answer Yes or No to a document of considerable length and complexity.
Explaining the treaty is primarily the responsibility of the Referendum Commission under the chairmanship of Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill, which has been allocated about €5 million in State funds.
This represents an increase of more than 20 per cent over the amount provided to the commission for its work on the second Nice referendum.
Under the Referendum Act 2001, the Referendum Commission is expected to prepare explanatory material on the treaty for publication or distribution through the print and broadcast media.
The 2001 Act supersedes the Referendum Act 1998, under which the commission had the role of setting out the arguments for and against.
A further €800,000 has also been made available to the Department of Foreign Affairs and funds from this budget have mainly been used to finance information material, including an explanatory pamphlet published on December 13th; a guide to the treaty published on February 13th (1.5 million copies distributed to households in April); and the White Paper on the Treaty, published in April. The dedicated website www.reformtreaty.ie was established in December 2007.
The National Forum on Europe has been heavily involved in activities related to the referendum. The forum's budget for 2008 is €3.8 million and a spokeswoman said: "Most of that will be spent on the forum's programme on the Treaty of Lisbon, including 14 plenary sessions, 24 regional public meetings, regional and national finals of the schools' public speaking competition and Forum information tools, such as its Summary Guide to the Treaty and a short film to assist debate at public meetings.
"As you know, the forum does not promote any view on the treaty but provides a space for all sides of the debate."
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs has held a series of public meetings on the treaty over the last three months in Athlone, Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Galway and Limerick.
These formal parliamentary sittings were serviced by parliamentary reporters, translators and ushers. No specific details as to costs, including travel and accommodation, was available for these sittings, which were funded from the Oireachtas budget. A report on the meetings is to be launched tomorrow.
The European Movement Ireland (Emi) was part of the drive for Irish membership of the European Economic Community, predecessor of the EU, in 1973. In the current referendum the organisation says it has taken on "a different role" as a facilitator of debate about the treaty.
Acting executive director Andrea Pappin says the Emi has brought "the mountain to Mohammed" by organising debates in workplaces. "By polling day we should have run 23 or 24," she says.
Held in such locations as AIB headquarters, Google Ireland, Arthur Cox solicitors and KPMG accountants, these one-hour lunchtime debates feature two invited speakers from each side with a journalist in the chair, followed by a question-and-answer session, and attendances have ranged from 80 to 400.
Although the Emi receives annual funding of €250,000 from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Pappin points out that the cost of staging the debates has been minimal.
The European Parliament office in Dublin has spent an estimated €2,800 on putting together a special Lisbon Treaty section - www.europarl.ie/lisbontreaty - on its website; sending copies of the treaty out on request; and information visits to the office by different groups.
The "Rock the Vote" campaign is to encourage young people on an independent, non-partisan basis to exercise their franchise. It organises musical events as well as putting out internet material.
