RTE news is reporting that, “with results in from 21 of the 43 constituencies, the Lisbon Treaty is being beaten by a margin of 54.6% to 45.4%.”

Foreign Affairs minister Michael Martin has already started what will proabbly be a long list of ‘let’s blame someone else for the government failures’ in this campaign.

Speaking to reporters Martin is reported as saying that “People were on the doorstep were saying ‘I still don’t know enough about this treaty’.”

The Irish Times quotes Martin as saying that “he was not blaming the Referendum Commission but said there was a sense that the treaty “just didn’t register” and “lacked a clear tangible”.

“He added there was a “general sense of giving away too much power” and that there were lessons for Europe and Ireland in “reconnecting” with voters.”

Could any of this be something to do with a badly negotiated treaty and a campaign of misinformation on it by the government beginning with a failure to put a copy of the text in every home! Sometimes the truth hurts.