Roche: Third Lisbon Treaty referendum 'very unlikely'

The Minister for European Affairs says another Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is "very unlikely".

European Leaders have agreed to make changes to the legislation to accommodate more permanent arrangements to bail out troubled eurozone economies.

The Irish Government is hoping the changes will be narrow enough to avoid having to vote a third time.

Minister Dick Roche said he believed they were, and that what was hammered out in Brussels overnight is a very commonsense agreement.

"To put in place a mechanism which would protect the Irish economy or other economies into the future would not, in my view, alter the essential scope or the objective of the (European) community," he said.