Ireland Ratifies Lisbon Treaty

Irish people have ratified the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, with an overwhelming majority of 67 per cent voting in favour. The turnout was 58 per cent with 1,214,268 people voting for the treaty and 594,606 voting against. The highest support for the treaty was recorded in Dublin South at 82 per cent while only two out of the 43 constituencies, both in Donegal, voted against it by a majority.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen cited 'economic issues' and how "we promote and defend our own interests" as the main reasons for the passing of the treaty. Mr Cowen said that "as a small open economy Ireland is particularly dependent on access to Europe because of the small size of the domestic consumer market. Two out of three of our jobs in this country are based in enterprises that have orders in European markets. We are members of the euro, and that zone of stability has helped us stabilise our public finances."

Ireland has a history of rejecting EU treaties - the first referendum on Lisbon in 2008 saw the treaty rejected by 53 per cent while in 2001 the Nice Treaty was rejected by 53 per cent.