Irish Support For E.U. Treaty Rises Sharply

53% of voters say they’ll vote Yes – an increase of six points the last poll a fortnight ago. 31% say they will vote no, down four points, while 16% are undecided, down two points.

When the undecided are excluded, the yes side leads by 63% to 37% with just under three weeks to go until voting.                                                                                                                                  Ireland is holding what will likely be the only popular vote on the treaty, the text of which states only countries that sign up to the new set of budget rules can access Europe’s permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

After Ireland’s finance minister said having the ESM as a back-stop was essential to plans to start issuing long-term debt again over the next 12 months, nine out of 10 economists polled by Reuters said on Friday a rejection of the treaty would torpedo such plans.Those concerns will be eased by the latest Sunday Business Post/Red C poll which showed 53 percent of likely voters in favour of the treaty, up six points from a survey by the same polling group two weeks ago.

Voters opposed to the treaty fell four percentage points to 31 percent while 16 percent told the pollsters they were still undecided, a drop of two points from the previous survey.

That means the “Yes” side, which is being led by the country’s three largest political parties as well as business and farming groups, holds a commanding 63 percent to 37 percent lead when undecided voters are excluded.

The treaty needs the approval of only 12 of the 17 euro zone countries to be ratified, but an Irish rejection would undermine one of Europe’s key plans for overcoming a debt crisis that raged on last week with Spain and France coming under intense pressure to deepen their deficit cuts.