Cabinet To Discuss Lisbon Fallout

The fallout from Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty is expected to dominate Tuesday's cabinet meeting in Dublin.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin is expected to brief his ministerial colleagues about the views expressed at yesterday's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

The Taoiseach himself is due to travel to Brussels to meet his fellow EU heads of state on Thursday, where Ireland's 'No' vote on Lisbon will again dominate the agenda.

The Irish government is preparing to regroup after the loss of the referendum. Since the ‘No’ vote, the rest of Europe is awaiting a decision from the Irish government on how it plans to deal with the unexpected loss.

British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, along with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown have urged Ireland to take a moment of reflection, but have both made it clear they expect resolution in the matter soon, whether it means another round of voting, or Ireland 'leaving' the EU's new agreement.

"The treaty needs the assent of all 27 countries to come into force, that is written in black and white. We must give the Irish space.

"They have said they need time to analyse the result and motive behind it. It's right we give them that time," said Mr Miliband, while Gordon Brown added: "I think a short period of reflection is necessary for the Irish to put forward their proposals for how to deal with this."

In the background of the ongoing fall out, new figures have revealed almost three-quarters of people who voted 'No' in the Lisbon Treaty referendum mistakenly believed the pact could be easily renegotiated.

A major survey of voters conducted by the European Commission immediately after last Thursday's referendum revealed the reasons why the majority of Irish people rejected the treaty.

The statistics revealed that young people voted by a majority of two to one; the vast majority of women voted 'no'; people who did not understand the treaty voted 'no' and more than 70% of voters believed a second treaty could be negotiated.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party, meanwhile, are also expected to discuss the Lisbon vote when their front benches meet this morning.

(DW)