Nearly half of Irish people to vote for EU treaty: poll

(DUBLIN) - Nearly half of Irish people will vote in favour of the European Union's fiscal pact treaty in a forthcoming referendum, according to an opinion poll to be published Sunday.

The Sunday Business Post/Red C poll found 49 percent would vote in favour of the pact designed to strengthen the euro, 33 percent would vote against and 18 percent are undecided.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny announced a referendum on the pact, which would place near-automatic sanctions on governments that failed to balance their budgets, following advice from Ireland's attorney general.

No date has been announced for the vote.

But it will be watched closely by Ireland's EU partners as the country has previously sent shockwaves through Europe on treaty plans, having had to vote twice before it passed two founding EU treaties, the Nice and Lisbon accords.

In November 2010, Ireland had to seek an 85-billion-euro ($113-billion) rescue package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund when massive debt and deficit problems left it on the verge of collapse.

Any state which fails to ratify the new pact, which comes into effect once 12 states have ratified, will lose the right to future EU bailouts.

Kenny's Fine Gael party and its coalition partner Labour are in favour of the treaty, as are the main Fianna Fail opposition party.

The republican Sinn Fein, the Socialist Party and a number of independents are against.

The poll was conducted among over 1,000 people nationwide last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.