The Government is due to get the final version of research, which was carried out to assess why people voted no to the Lisbon Treaty, next week.
But the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said it is already clear that the fear of conscription into a European army was a much bigger issue than previously thought.
He also said the Government has been asked by a number of US companies if the vote meant Ireland might leave the EU, and whether they should continue to invest here.
Speaking at the beginning of an EU foreign ministers meeting in Avignon in France, Michéal Martin said there is a need for the Government and the people of Ireland to understand ‘where we are coming from (regarding the Lisbon vote) and to communicate that to our colleagues’.
Mr Martin also said it is ‘timely for us to have a look at our membership of the EU and how we engage with it into the future’.
However, he rejected any notion of Ireland staging a unilateral withdrawal from the Union to allow the other states to proceed with the Lisbon Treaty.
He said a number of recent events, including the situation in Georgia and international police operations into organised crime, proved the value of European co-operation
