Irish PM says no decision on euro treaty vote until March

(DUBLIN) - Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Monday no decision would be made before March on whether a constitutional referendum will be needed for an EU treaty aimed at saving the euro.

"What was achieved last weekend after a marathon meeting was a political agreement. That political agreement has to be worked upon in terms of text and in terms of substance," Kenny said.

"The timeline for that is approximately the end of March. At that stage from an Irish perspective... the question of whether or not a referendum is necessary or not will be on the basis of legal advice from the Attorney General.

"If a referendum is necessary then a referendum will be held," he told reporters in County Mayo in western Ireland.

The prime minister said that in the meantime there will be a "great deal of technical work, of legal work and wording to be gone through" about how the EU agreement will be implemented and "in what form".

At an EU summit in Brussels last week a pact to deal with the eurozone crisis was agreed in principle by all 27 members of the EU except Britain.

Ireland has past form in sending shockwaves through EU capitals on treaty plans having had to vote twice before it passed both the Nice and Lisbon treaties.

British Prime Minister David Cameron vetoed the change to the EU treaty change on the grounds that he had to protect Britain's financial services industry.

Asked about Britain's veto, Kenny he would have preferred that all 27 EU members continue to be involved in the discussions.

"As our nearest neighbour who was first to our assistance in terms of financial support when we went into a bailout situation and as our largest trading partner obviously we are very interested in seeing that Prime Minister Cameron and Britain retains a deep interest in expanding the single market."

Massive debt and deficit problems led to Ireland seeking an 85-billion-euro ($115-billion) European Union-International Monetary Fund rescue package in November last year.