Voters face a vitally important decision for Ireland's and Europe's future in the referendum on the Nice Treaty tomorrow. A Yes vote would confirm Ireland's influential position in the mainstream of the European Union by enabling 10 candidate states to join in the coming year.
It would affirm Ireland's interests and values as part of this historic process. A No vote would jeopardise Ireland's influence, marginalise its role and threaten its prosperity. It would throw EU enlargement into crisis and antagonise the candidate states.
With so much at stake it is essential that those intending to vote Yes should turn out to do so tomorrow to ensure such potential dangers are avoided. Those who have yet to decide how to vote should take full account of them - and those intending to vote No should reflect deeply on them before casting their ballots.
The campaign this year has been a great improvement on the one which took place last year. There has been a much deeper engagement by the political parties, the main interest groups and a whole variety of civil society organisations. As a result public understanding of the issues has demonstrably increased, despite the proliferation of wild allegations and misrepresentations during the campaign.
It remains to be seen whether the quality of Irish democracy is commensurately improved by a much higher turnout of the electorate tomorrow, compared to the lamentable 34.7 per cent last year.
Nothing less than the timely and agreed re-uniting of the European continent thirteen years after the end of the Cold War is at stake in Ireland's vote. If the treaty is rejected it will not be possible to enlarge the European Union as agreed politically by 27 governments within the extremely tight timetable they have laid down. That would be a huge disappointment to the candidate states and a defeat for their aspirations, since they quite correctly regard the treaty as the only valid legal instrument to ensure a smooth process of EU enlargement. They have looked to Ireland as an exemplar of successful development, with which they share many historical and political characteristics. They hope to develop fruitful relations with us on the basis of a Yes vote.
Enlargement of the EU is the principal objective of the Nice Treaty. Were it to fall, another means would have to be found to ensure that process goes ahead.
The principal danger of a No vote tomorrow is that enlargement would be mortally delayed because its political basis could not be otherwise agreed. Ireland would be indelibly blamed for such an outcome, irrespective of the expressed motivation of voters.
This would fly in the face of Ireland's constructive engagement with Europe over the last generation, which has released creative energy and enabled us to achieve real independence.
Political reservations about Nice are best addressed by voting Yes and concentrating on the next, more ambitious treaty addressed to the whole question of the future of Europe.