Dublin, 27/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Ireland will be going to the polls in a referendum on the European budget pact on Thursday 31 May 2012, announced the government in Dublin on Tuesday 27 March. In recent opinion polls, 49% of those quizzed said they would vote for the budget pact, 33% would vote against and 18 were undecided. Both parties in the coalition government - Fine Gail (a member of the EPP) and the Labour Party - back ratification of the budget pact, as does the main opposition party, Fianna Fail (part of the European liberal group). In the Irish parliament, the main party opposing the “Austerity Treaty” is Irish Republican party Sinn Fein (a leftist party), which seems to be gaining ground. There are two differences from the previous referendums on the European treaties: (1) Dublin cannot veto the budget pact, which will come into force as soon as 12 eurozone member states have ratified it, with or without Ireland. Ireland will therefore not be able to organise a second referendum, as happened before for the Nice Treaty (2001) and the Lisbon Treaty (2008), which were rejected in the first referendum and approved in the second; (2) ratification of the budget pact is a condition for borrowing money from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) from 2013 onwards. The Irish bailout comes from the European Financial Stability Facility and the IMF and will last until the end of 2013. Even if Ireland wants to roll over its debt itself next year, it might be premature to rule out the option of getting a second bailout from the ESM, if required.