Two other plans for rescuing the EU Constitution have been canvassed. The first - the exclusion of Ireland from full membership of the union - was quickly dropped. Its illegality apart, the expulsion of a member state would potentially be the thin end of the wedge of the dissolution of the EU.

A more plausible plan, championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, is to visit on Dublin a package of charm, bribes and veiled threats in the hope of persuading the Irish government to call and win a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty before the British general election. The incentives would include comfort about their take from the EU budget, protection of their right to a commissioner, a promise not to attack Ireland's low-tax regime and helpful declarations on neutrality and abortion. Unwritten assurances, however, would be mistrusted, and opt-outs written into protocols would count as treaty changes, triggering the fresh ratifications that integrationists so fear. Moreover, polls predict that a second referendum would suffer a defeat at the hands of Libertas, the "No" campaign run by the energetic businessman Declan Ganley -which could well break the government coalition.