Urgent efforts to inform voters about the EU Constitution, due to be put to a referendum next year, must be made, the Oireachtas European Affairs Committee has warned.
Last week, an EU-wide opinion poll found that 45 per cent of Irish voters had not even heard of the constitution, even though its agreement was the high point of Ireland's EU 2004 presidency.
"The message is that there is no point throwing a book about the treaty into every house in the country," said the European Affairs Committee (EAC) chairman, Fine Gael Waterford TD, Mr John Deasy.
The EAC will hold public hearings from next week, inviting in the National Forum on Europe, the Irish Institute of European Affairs and others. However, Mr Deasy said that the EAC would also ensure that "anti-treaty" organisations would also be given a platform.
Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley, who was a member of the Convention on the Future of Europe that produced the first draft of the treaty, complained sharply yesterday that he could not get a final copy of the agreement. "Is this European Constitution available to members of the public? I have had difficulty obtaining the latest version of it. I recently went to the European Commission building and was told that I could have a copy.
"There was a certain reluctance and they did not want to give me the declarations and the protocols. If elected representatives cannot get the latest version, then how can the ordinary citizen be expected to know anything about this constitution?" Mr Gormley asked.
The lack of media coverage about the EU has contributed to "a disturbing level of ignorance" about European affairs he added: "I often ask myself if anyone knows what we were at, if anyone cares, or if anyone is fully au fait with the European Constitution."
The latest Euro poll, carried out last November amongst 25,000 people in the 25 member-states, found that 49 per cent approved of the constitution.
However, one third said they had never heard of it, and this lack of knowledge is most pronounced in the 10 member-states that will hold referendums; Denmark, Spain, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the UK and the Czech Republic.