First there will be some humility. While there is no doubt the Government intends to run the Nice Treaty referendum again, they are not going to go out and tell the people that they got it wrong and must get it right next time.
Instead, the Taoiseach and his Ministers last night spoke of taking time to reflect, to study the outcome and learn lessons. To run Nice again and win they need to know the reasons for its rejection, and put something to the people that appears to take account of their concerns.
Emerging on to the steps of Government Buildings to take the result on the chin, Mr Ahern spoke to two audiences: the Irish people, whose decision he said he respected, and to our EU partners and the accession countries, to whom he offered reassurance that Ireland remained committed to EU enlargement.
There is no settled view in Government as to how to proceed. Mr Cowen will speak to his EU foreign minister colleagues in Luxembourg on Monday. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday next both he and the Taoiseach will have detailed discussions with the other 14 member-states on what can be done.
Last night Ministers and senior Government officials were beginning to look at the options, and they are limited. They say privately they have ruled out any prospect of renegotiating the treaty. It was such a delicate and bitterly fought compromise that there would be massive resistance from elsewhere in the EU to reopening it, they say. Nobody was fully happy with the outcome; so, if we want to improve our deal, everyone else will as well. That prospect, Government sources believe, is too awful for the rest of the EU to contemplate.
Ruled out, too, is the other extreme of deciding to accept the people's verdict and have the treaty fall. Too much is riding on it. The Government accepts the position of the EU's enlargement commissioner, Mr Gunther Verheugen, that the enlargement process will go ahead as planned, with the assumption that the unforeseen "Irish problem" will be resolved in time. There is little doubt that there will be a Nice Referendum Mark II.
Early Government thinking last night was around a twin strategy of agreeing some addendum to the treaty to satisfy Irish concerns, while at the same time introducing domestic changes separate from the treaty to reassure those who have concerns.
Adding a protocol to the treaty would be difficult as it would require the explicit agreement of each of the 15. More likely would be a declaration, which merely requires that nobody makes the effort to object.
This could for example state explicitly what is already in the treaty in relation to defence: That nothing in the treaty can force Ireland to become involved in any military operation without the prior consent of the Government here. It could involve an explanation of other aspects of Nice, and how they would affect Ireland.
Together with this, sources said the Government will consider measures to reassure those concerned that EU decisions are being taken at an ever greater remove from the Irish people. This concern - most clearly raised during the campaign by former Attorney General Mr John Rogers - could be addressed through strengthening the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs.
This could allow for greater scrutiny of European legislation. Proposals from Brussels would be open to examination and debate in Ireland before being approved. It would rarely be exciting but it could be pointed to as a solid effort to tackle Europe's "democratic deficit".
The third issue in Government circles is the McKenna judgment, loathed by Ministers. This Supreme Court judgment, prohibiting the State from funding a partisan campaign on one side, is blamed by many in Government for their inability to convince the people of the merits of their case. Gone are the days when the government could spend large amounts of taxpayers' money on a partisan campaign to change the Constitution.
Government Ministers have mused about the prospect of challenging that judgment in the courts again. Alternatively, they could come up with a more exciting response to it than the Referendum Commission, which is charged with producing rather dry arguments in favour of and against proposed constitutional amendments. Some mechanism of providing equal funding to Yes and No campaigns might at least produce more lively debate.
Finally, there is the decision on when to run Nice Mark II. The treaty does not have to be ratified until late 2002, and the options appear to be either a very early re-run or a postponement until after the next general election. The Government will not want the second referendum to interfere with its discretion on the timing of the general election. Neither will it want to be forced to confront the demand for an abortion referendum before the election. The worst scenario from the Government's point of view would be to time a difficult Nice, and a potential abortion, referendum in the middle of its favoured election period - currently said by them to be the second quarter of 2002.
Separately, the diplomatic resources of the State will be used to try to minimise damage to relations with the accession states. The Government will attempt to say that the decision was not due to selfishness, but other factors. Concern over this is acute within Iveagh House. As one source said yesterday: "If anybody voted against us in 1972, would we have forgotten it yet?"