The president of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, has called for careful consideration to be given by people when casting their vote in a second referendum on the Nice Treaty.
Mr Cox, who was being conferred with the Freedom of the City of Limerick yesterday, said membership of the EU had given the Republic of Ireland new energies and released it from being effectively the most stagnant and backward part of the British economy.
Before casting votes in a new referendum, people should contemplate whether the vote was in the State's interest and allow it more influence in Europe, he said.
Mr Cox spent his childhood and teenage years in Limerick and later worked for a time in the city's NIHE, now part of UL.