FIANNA FÁIL:TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has said he is "not contemplating defeat" in the Lisbon Treaty referendum
Mr Cowen was speaking in Portlaoise yesterday when campaigning with local Fianna Fáil members outside O'Moore Park before a Laois-Offaly All-Ireland hurling championship match.
He said he was glad to see the Yes side was holding the lead. He confirmed that Fianna Fáil would be intensifying its campaign in the coming weeks.
He expressed hope that colleagues in other political parties would crank up their campaigns, saying he wanted to see the same level of support for the treaty from those who have "the same vocation to the European idea as we have".
However, the Taoiseach refused to consider that his referendum campaign might be unsuccessful, saying: "I just don't think that way. We're going to win this referendum."
He was satisfied there had been adequate discussion of Irish neutrality in advance of the referendum.
"There is an absolute acceptance of the nature and character of our own commitment, especially in peacekeeping, and we will continue to have the very same position post-Lisbon as is the case now."
When asked if he felt Irish people had a coherent and consistent understanding of Irish neutrality, he said: "There are some who seek to misrepresent it as if we don't get involved in international obligations at all. That has never been our policy.
"Our policy is one of not joining up to mutual defence pacts. We're not in any way committing ourselves.
"We will continue to work with colleagues and in line with the UN charter as we did before."
On defining peacekeeping, peace-making and common defence, he said chapter seven of the UN charter sets out the circumstances in which military involvement may be required.
However, he emphasised that it would not involve Ireland "in any way changing the character of its military participation in international peacekeeping forces after the Lisbon Treaty is passed".
• Voting No would allow a common defence to go ahead outside of the EU institutions and would not be in Ireland's interests, according to Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell.
"There are those who believe voting No will have no adverse consequences for Ireland.
"Let me give one example of where it will not be in Ireland's interests to vote No - the area of common defence," he said yesterday in Dublin.
He said existing treaties, repeated in the Lisbon Treaty, make provision for a future EU common defence if the European Council (heads of state or government) unanimously so decides.
"If this were to happen, it would then require ratification in each member state 'in accordance with its constitutional requirements'," he said.
"This means a further referendum in Ireland ," he added.
"However, if Ireland votes No those EU member states, led by France, who want to see a common EU defence would not want to allow the arrangements for such a common defence to be designed by all EU member states, including Ireland, because if we vote No on Lisbon, where Ireland got everything it sought in the negotiations, there will certainly be a good prospect that we would vote No on a common defence."
Therefore, it was much more likely that a common European defence would go ahead under the Western European Union (WEU) at which Ireland is only an observer, not a full participant.
"This would be disastrous for Ireland," he warned.
If a common defence was to go ahead within the EU it would be subject to the institutions of the EU: the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the commission.
He said in all of these the common concerns of all member states could be taken into account.