The Government and its EU partners will begin delicate negotiations tomorrow on getting the Treaty of Nice back on track after Irish voters posed the biggest test yet to European Union enlargement.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Brian Cowen will pledge commitment to enlargement at a Council of Ministers' meeting in Luxembourg, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
But he will offer no quick fix to the crisis posed by the dramatic rejection of the treaty in last Thursday's referendum, which slammed the door on a dozen applicant countries, whose ministers will join the EU meeting late tomorrow.
"They will analyse the reasons for the rejection, which are manifold. But he will want to reassure people that, as the Taoiseach (prime minister) said Friday, we remain committed to enlargement," the spokesman said today.
"But I don't think we're in the business yet of how to sort it out," he added. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, facing heavy criticism at home for the Government campaign, enters the spotlight at the EU summit in Gothenburg on Friday, where he is expected to be grilled on Dublin's strategy to find an exit from the crisis.
His shell-shocked Government was this weekend left pondering how a loose amalgam managed to take on and defeat the combined mainstream parties as well as business and industry.
They did so because the government was manifestly unable to quell the fears they sowed in the Irish mind - that a giant Europe, powered by core heavyweights Germany and France, would sweep away its cherished neutrality, and diminish its influence in Brussels.
Mr Ahern will now have to assess that confusion and present its anxious European colleagues with a political road map plotting its way out of crisis.
A new referendum with special "opt-out" clauses to assuage voters' concerns is one option, but some feel the government would not want a new plebiscite until after a general election.
A general election must be held before next June, and Mr Ahern is unlikely to want to dilute limited party funds on a referendum campaign.
AFP