Ministers representing the Irish and British governments have predicted that the Yes vote for the Belfast Agreement will be higher than was suggested in yesterday's Irish Times poll.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, and Mr Paul Murphy, Northern Ireland Minister for Political Development, were speaking yesterday at a special meeting of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body in Dublin Castle.
Mr Andrews told journalists: "There'll be a considerable Yes vote." He said Mr Blair's visit to Belfast on Thursday was not reflected in the poll. He also said he would have preferred if the Northern poll had been conducted by direct interview, as it was in the South. He understood it was a telephone poll.
Mr Murphy also stressed the timing of the poll. "Polls reflect day-to-day activities. It was taken a day or so after the ardfheis and those scenes of triumphalism," he said. "It's just one poll. A lot of polls, including private polls we in government are conducting, show majorities of Yes."
Meanwhile a Tory MP, Mr David Wilshire from Surrey, said he opposed the agreement because it was based on a green agenda, and was an irreversible route to a united Ireland. Mr Wilshire arrived in Dublin yesterday morning from Belfast.
He said it was a red herring to ask those who opposed the amendment to offer an alternative. The referendum was on this agreement.
His party colleague and former NI minister, Mr Michael Mates MP, stressed that Mr Wilshire was speaking only for himself.
He moved that the motion before the meeting, that it welcomed the agreement and looked forward to its successful endorsement by the people in referendums, be put. All those present voted in favour, with the exception of Mr Wilshire, who voted against.