Dublin ponders consequences of referendum stayaway

Irish government ministers - desperate to avoid an embarrassing poll rejection of the European Union’s Treaty of Nice - were tonight assessing the potential consequences of one of the lowest voter turnouts in the history of constitutional referendums.

After day-long voting in three separate plebiscites, the poll stood at barely 15% nationwide and, despite the prospect of a later relative rush, there was only a remote prospect of the figure reaching the average for referendums of about 52%.