The Government must not run the risk of a "muddled" campaign for the EU Constitution referendum like the Nice Treaty vote, the Green Party warned today.
The Party made the call as it launched a series of nationwide seminars to inform voters and members of the public on the Constitution.
With recent surveys revealing that almost half the population has never heard of the European Union constitution, Cork South Central TD Mr Dan Boyle warned: "The important issues will get muddled if everybody starts shouting at each other in a truncated, ill-measured campaign".
Mr Boyle said the public seminars have been organised "to promote debate and exchange diverse views on all aspects and implications of the EU constitution from trade to environment to defence".
Party chairman Mr John Gormley said: "As someone who participated in the Convention on the Future of Europe, spending a considerable amount of time in Brussels at meetings, it is depressing to note that most people don't even know that the Convention took place."
"Six people represented Ireland at that Convention. We want to play our part in promoting informed debate about the Constitution in this country," Mr Gormley added.
The party said it would only decide on its own position on the referendum after a special convention in June. The first seminar, The Economic and Social Impact of the Constitution, takes place in University College Cork on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa appeared before the Oireachtas' Joint Committee on European Affairs and proposed that a copy of the European Constitution be sent to every home in the country and CD-Roms be sent to every secondary school.
"Putting in place a Constitution for Europe by way of a binding international treaty between 25 sovereign states is the most important European decision Irish citizens will have had to make since deciding to join the EEC over thirty years ago," he said.
"The decision on this Constitution is too important for the future of Europe, and our role in it, for citizens to have to rely solely on the interpretation of various protagonists. Citizens should have the opportunity to read the actual text for themselves."