The chairman of the Convention on the Future of Europe, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, is to meet the Taoiseach in Dublin tomorrow to brief him about progress on the draft EU constitution.
The visit, part of a series throughout the EU capitals, follows Mr Giscard d'Estaing's presentation to the convention last month of the first 16 articles of the draft document.
More than 1,200 amendments have since been submitted from the member and accession states, including some objecting to the explicit reference to a "federal" EU, and to the lack of any reference to God.
The former French president is also expected to call to Áras an Uachtaráin during his short Irish visit.
The chairman of the National Forum on Europe, Senator Maurice Hayes, said yesterday that the war in Iraq made it difficult to predict what the pace of progress at the convention would be in the near future, but he added that the forum would continue to monitor and contribute to the debate there.
Senator Hayes was speaking at the publication of the forum's latest report, which covers the period of last autumn's second referendum on the Nice Treaty.
He said recent research had shown that the forum's discussions helped a quarter of the electorate make their minds up about the second poll, and that public awareness of the body's work more than doubled during the course of last year.
"Research also showed that the information from the forum did not make it more likely for voters to vote either Yes or No in the referendum - the effect was neutral.
"This is in line with our non-advocacy stance and bears out our role in trying to ensure a neutral space for debate in a participative democracy," Senator Hayes said.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/d408b07e-0ff8-4a26-8878-74aec64dccc4.png)