Martin: EU needs to know Ireland’s intentions by December

THE Government should be able to tell its EU partners in December if it will hold another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, Foreign Minister Michael Martin has intimated.

He acknowledged that the member states would need to know Ireland’s intentions by then in light of the upcoming elections to the European Parliament in June.

But he refused to say if the Government would take up the suggestion made by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and hold a referendum with the elections next summer.