Govt urged to provide more information about EU Constitution

A leading academic has called on the Government to set up public information campaigns about the proposed EU Constitution.

A recent poll conducted for the European Commission found that knowledge of the document was very low among Irish voters.

Only 3% of respondents to the poll gave correct answers to six basic questions about the proposed constitution, while 13% got all six questions wrong.

UCD Professor Richard Sinnott has now called on the Government to ensure that people are more knowledgeable before a referendum on the document is held in Ireland.

He claimed a lack of information was the reason why the Nice Treaty was rejected by the Irish electorate only to be ratified when the Government decided to run the referendum again.