Political leaders should tell the people where Ireland was going in the European context, the National Forum on Europe has been told.
Two Jesuit priests said the voters also needed to know where the European Union as a whole was going and they called for clarification of the policy of Irish neutrality by the Oireachtas.
Father Edmond Grace and Father Tom Giblin from the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, based in inner-city Dublin, told a forum meeting held in Dublin's City Hall that they were in favour of the Nice Treaty and a new referendum, but there were wider issues that needed to be addressed.
Father Giblin said Nice was the first European treaty where Irish voters did not have a clear economic incentive to vote Yes. The Treaty was very complicated and not enough time was given for people to get to grips with it.
"If you are going to put things to the Irish people, they need to know where we are going."
His colleague, Father Grace, said the Government needed to "exercise some political imagination" in the European debate. "We need to look at a coherent national stance on Europe." It was time to move from the diplomacy model to the model of democratic politics.
He had "serious misgivings" about the provision in the Nice Treaty for a reduction in the number of Commissioners when the EU reached 27 members.
Echoing sentiments expressed at the last meeting of the forum by former Commission officials, he said there was a need to look at that provision.
"We are saying that the debate on that needs to be reopened." European summits and meetings of the Council of Ministers should be held in public and broadcast on television. Visibility would change the dynamic of European politics, Father Grace said.
Mr Brendan Halligan of the Institute of European Affairs said it would be "virtually impossible" to renegotiate the Nice Treaty. On the issue whether it would be possible for new members to join the EU on the basis of individual accession treaties with the same basic content as the Nice Treaty, he said it was conceivable that "some temporary arrangement" might be devised but it would be "inherently dangerous".
The forum was adjourned until Thursday in Dublin Castle, where participants will include the President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox.
The Forum website is www.forumoneurope.ie