FOREIGN Affairs Minister Micheal Martin says he is "shocked" by Sinn Fein attempts to ambush the Taoiseach on the Lisbon Treaty campaign.

Brian Cowen has faced repeated protests as he toured the country in recent weeks, but Mr Martin believes that many of them have been orchestrated by referendum rivals.

In an exclusive interview with the Herald, Mr Martin also insisted that a negative result on Friday would not spark a General Election.

He accepted that the Yes side did not do enough preparation last time and said he was "very worried" about the recent opinion polls on the Treaty.

As the campaign enters its final days, the minister has hit out at the No camp for staging protests and trying to distract people from Lisbon by focusing on national politics.

Robust

And, in a focused attack on Sinn Fein, Mr Martin accused Gerry Adams's party of "playing games all over the place".

Speaking about the protests that have followed Taoiseach Brian Cowen's canvassing trail, Mr Martin said: "He's a robust politician and he would know -- and I would know -- that some of these protests are organised by our opponents.

"I mean, our very first campaign launch was picketed by Sinn Fein, which I found objectionable to be honest.

"We didn't picket the Sinn Fein launch. Sinn Fein are playing games all over the place."

Defending both Mr Cowen and Tanaiste Mary Coughlan's handling of the FAS controversy, he asked why Sinn Fein felt the need to picket the party's campaign with national issues.

He said: "Martin Ferris was outside picketing -- I was shocked at that.

"How would they like if we went around the place with placards outside everything they did? We could all follow each other around with pickets."

He accepted that there were "some genuine people out there protesting" but said that "some political activists are fermenting this and the Shinners aren't far out of it, as far as I can see".

He said the controversy over Rody Molloy's severance package from FAS could affect some voters. He said: "I think people are extremely annoyed about that for a lot of reasons."

But he pleaded with voters to differentiate between local problems and "the milestone in our history".

He said that a protest vote would not do anything except make the economic recovery more difficult and prolonged.

Asked about the Libertas posters which say that the only job to saved by Lisbon is Brian Cowen's, Mr Martin said: "That's a deliberate attempt by Ganley to manipulate the domestic political situation to defeat Lisbon."

He added that a No vote will not cause the Government to collapse. "Whoever becomes Taoiseach needs the majority of Dail Eireann.

"Referendums have never been used to bring down the Government. That's a misnomer. It's something created by commentators. If that was case, no Taoiseach would ever hold a referendum."

On FAS, he added that Tanaiste Mary Coughlan was "under pressure" when she sanctioned the golden handshake.

"The Tanaiste was anxious to get a new general director in and wanted this to happen effectively and quickly so that FAS could get on with the business.

"It's not ideal -- no one is saying it's ideal."

But he argued: "It happened under Fine Gael-Labour governments and with people in other positions who were asked to move on.

"These are people with 30 years' pension entitlements. It's not an easy one.

"You could end up in the courts very quickly and if you end up in the courts you could end up losing and paying legal costs as well, which makes it worse off.

"These are calls that people make at the time."

kdoyle@herald.ie

- Kevin Doyle