THE GREEN Party indicated yesterday that it would insist on "clear and legally-binding guarantees" on Irish concerns before agreeing to a second Lisbon Treaty referendum.
The party's European spokeswoman, Senator Deirdre de Burca, said that Irish voters were concerned about an erosion of neutrality and losing influence at the EU Commission table.
"There must be legal certainty that these concerns are being addressed," she added.
"They cannot be fobbed off with vague promises not worth the paper they are written on."
Ms de Burca, who is the party's European Parliament candidate in the Dublin constituency, suggested the adoption of a Danish model by Ireland. When the Danes voted down an earlier treaty, Denmark, she said, had received declarations on key issues of concern which were underwritten by the EU leaders' political endorsement.
The Danish government further copper-fastened those assurances by registering them as an international treaty. They were later given further legal certainty when recognised in another EU treaty.
Ms de Burca was responding to the Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll, which showed a swing to the Yes side since the referendum defeat last June.
Libertas chairman Declan Ganley claimed the poll showed that there was no public support for any attempt to re-run the failed referendum.
"It comes as no surprise that The Irish Timesdid not have their pollsters ask people the obvious question: do you want a second referendum?" he added.
"It should give the elites in Brussels significant pause to see a poll which shows that even with significant tinkering their Frankenstein's version of Lisbon would not win anything close to majority support from the Irish electorate, nor would it if it were put to a referendum anywhere across Europe."
Mr Ganley said that previous experience had shown that such polls often underestimated the No vote.
Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins warned that his party would not support having the referendum on the same day as the European and local elections in June. "Staging the referendum with such high-profile elections would muddy the waters," he commented.
Mr Timmins said that the time for reflection was over and the concerns of voters on the Yes and No side should be addressed. He added that genuinely-held concerns could no longer be "hijacked by the Eurosceptics, who seek to mould them to their own agenda".
Labour spokesman on European affairs Joe Costello said that while the poll was encouraging it did not suggest any fundamental rethink by the Irish electorate.
"With 18 per cent of voters undecided, clearly the issue is very much in the balance," he added.
Mr Costello said the fact that the issue of workers' rights was not included as a question represented a "serious omission".
Sinn Féin European Parliament candidate in the North-West constituency Pádraig Mac Lochlainn claimed that the Government had done nothing to move the issue on since the referendum.
"Brian Cowen has shown no political leadership," he added. "He has shown no ability to negotiate with our European partners on the issues relating to why the electorate rejected Lisbon."
Patricia McKenna, chairwoman of one of the No groups, the People's Movement, claimed that declarations on tax, abortion and neutrality were a devious ploy designed to dupe Irish voters into believing that the Government had somehow obtained concessions from other EU states.
