The electorate should "wait in the long grass" and deliver a "bloody nose" to the Government where it was needed - at the European and local elections in 20 months' time.

Labour leader Mr Ruairí Quinn said he was concerned that people might be influenced when voting in the referendum by a desire to deal a bloody nose to a Taoiseach and Government "that deliberately deceived the Irish people in the run-up to the last general election".

The Government's re-election was secured on a false platform and it deserved to be punished. However, "it would be wrong if the aspiring peoples of eastern Europe should suffer a knockback because of the dishonesty of an Irish Government so desperate to be re-elected that it cared not about how it did it".

He said the Nice Treaty was about facilitating enlargement for 10 member-states who would decide over the next two years whether to join or eject membership of the EU. It was "no perfect treaty" but "enlargement is the key issue here".

It was true that "there may be other means of securing enlargement but not without seriously discommoding the expectations in the applicant countries. Is that a choice we really want to make?"

He said the No side was right that it was a debate about the same treaty that was rejected by the electorate. "But I find the argument that the Irish people cannot change their mind in a new context a bizarre one. Sovereignty rests with them and that includes the right to reverse previous positions."

The former Labour minister of state, Ms Joan Burton, called on the Government to stop its tone of "apocalypse now" if people voted No to Nice. She said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, and the Tánaiste had been forced to overcome their Euroscepticism for the treaty campaign. Government speakers were like "old-style redemptorist preachers" warning about the "horrors of hellfire". If it continued for the six weeks of the referendum campaign the electorate might take exception and "bite back" against a counterproductive approach.

The Dublin West TD said she was a "sceptical Yes" voter but was concerned that if Ireland voted No it would mark a shift in Irish politics and a retreat back into isolationism. "I don't think that it is the intention of the majority of voters but I think it will be the result."