Éamon Ó Cuív, the Fianna Fáil Cabinet Minister who voted No in the first referendum on the Nice Treaty in 2001, has urged people to vote in favour of the Lisbon Treaty. Stephen Collins reports.
He is the third member of the current Cabinet who voted No in the past to advocate a Yes vote this time around.
The two Green Ministers, Eamon Ryan and John Gormley, campaigned for a No vote in the last five referendum campaigns.
Speaking in Brussels yesterday Mr Ó Cuív, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, said that the European Union has had a positive effect on the development of multilingualism.
"I urge voters to turn out and vote in favour of the EU reform Treaty when it comes before the Irish people, as it will be a vote in favour of supporting cultural and linguistic diversity across the European Union," said the Minister.
"It is clear that the European Union is serious about the importance of multilingualism, not just to assist better business communication between the member states but because it recognises that Europe's languages, Irish amongst them, belong to us all," added Mr Ó Cuív.
At a meeting with the European multilingualism commissioner, Leonard Orban, the Minister discussed the ongoing work in Ireland on the development of Irish.
Mr Ó Cuív also confirmed that the Government will continue to support the EU in implementing the status given to Irish.
The Minister said that while there were challenges for the EU in the implementation of official language status for Irish, these were being dealt with in a practical way.
Mr Ó Cuív assured Mr Orban that any minor issues with the Irish language spelling and grammar standard, the Caighdeán Oifigiúil, were technical matters that do not affect the meaning of words and do not hinder the work of translation.
"Most of these technical matters have been clarified in advice from Foras na Gaeilge's Terminology Committee.
"I have asked Foras na Gaeilge to review the official standard to see if other areas might usefully be clarified," he said.