PEOPLE IN favour of the European Union will have been motivated to come out and vote Yes in next month's referendum, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said.
"The Yes vote this time will come out. There had been a fear that they would not do so," Mr Martin told journalists in Dublin.
The four-week duration of the official campaign had allowed time for issues to be ventilated, he said. "Maybe a shorter campaign would have suited the No side better.
"The longer the untruths given out by the No side are out there the longer people have to examine them. People are getting an opportunity to think about them."
He also spoke positively of the Fine Gael and Labour campaigns, saying he had complimented Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell on the campaign he has conducted.
Mr Mitchell has produced 100,000 detailed booklets on the treaty and 70,000 of these have been given out in the last few days.
Labour TD Joe Costello, said Mr Martin, had put forward "a good idea" that parties on the Yes side should co-operate to ensure that every house is canvassed again before polling day.
Mr Martin was involved, along with Mr Mitchell, Mr Costello and Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton, in ending the dispute between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour.
Farmers, he said, were "beginning to come onside" with the Yes campaign, adding that it was "never too late" for the Irish Farmers' Association to back the treaty.
The IFA national council is to discuss the issue at its next meeting on Tuesday.
A text poll of 3,000 of its members carried out last week showed that 19 per cent of respondents intended to vote Yes, 42 per cent intended to vote No while 39 per cent were undecided.
Fianna Fáil will give out hundreds of thousands of leaflets about the treaty, Mr Martin added.
