Lisbon II polling date?

[Bobert]

Can we not let Christmas, Paddy's day, the Euro's and the Locals, then Halloween and Christmas II happen first then?

[Podolski]

They're digging up Leni Riefenstahl to do the PR videos right now.

[He3]

Triumph of the Bill?

[Keith-M]

September or early October 2009.

[Myles_per_hour]

Not until the next budget anyway! No money was put aside for the Lisbon Treaty in Budget '08, unlike Budget '07 which allocated €5.8 million for the Lisbon Treaty campaign. Irish Examiner | Irish News | News from Ireland

No doubt there will be a Lisbon II, but it would be pointless to try to do it now. Voters will often vote against governments if they are not happy with their current position. With the grey vote still reeling from the medical cards disaster, another Lisbon Treaty would be a fruitless endeavor.

The lack of funds is irrelevant. Governments have contingency funds for unexpected votes - elections, referenda, etc. They knew when they put through budget 08 (BTW the budget year number refers to the year the budget is for. So the 2008 budget was introduced in 2007 to cover costs in 2008. The budget introduced a few weeks ago is budget 2009, because it is for expenditure and income in 2009) because they knew already the timeframe for the referendum. They don't know now. It could be October 09, of February 10. If it is 2009 it will be paid for from the contingency fund. Alternatively it could be in the second 2009 budget likely to be introduced in March 2009!

[southwestkerry]

At the first sign off a heat wave [summer !!] they spring it on us, may add something else to muddy the lines, God forbid but like changing the constitution so as they be no more votes on any treaty's.

[DeGaulle 2.0]

The lack of funds is irrelevant. Governments have contingency funds for unexpected votes - elections, referenda, etc. They knew when they put through budget 08 (BTW the budget year number refers to the year the budget is for. So the 2008 budget was introduced in 2007 to cover costs in 2008. The budget introduced a few weeks ago is budget 2009, because it is for expenditure and income in 2009) because they knew already the timeframe for the referendum. They don't know now. It could be October 09, of February 10. If it is 2009 it will be paid for from the contingency fund. Alternatively it could be in the second 2009 budget likely to be introduced in March 2009!

They dropped the contingency fund from this year's budget to make it look better. (Although a referendum is not that expensive).

[Question R24U]

If the referendum was held before the Euro elections and carried, the wind would be taken from Ganley's sails to run 400 candidates accross Europe under his Eurofederalist banner.