The Irish government has taken the first concrete steps to address the crisis thrown up by its rejection of the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty by commissioning an opinion poll to find out just why its citizens voted the way they did.

The exercise, according to Micheál Martin, the foreign minister, was "an important initial step in identifying a way forward" though not, he stressed, "an end in itself". It would "clarify the reasons why people voted the way they did and provide a deeper insight into public at-titudes towards the Union".