BBC News - Count will determine if Ireland accepts or rejects EU fiscal pact

Counting in the Republic of Ireland's referendum on whether to ratify the EU's Fiscal Pact, is due to begin at 09:00 BST on Friday.

Some 3.1m people are entitled to vote in the Irish Republic

The treaty sets strict limits for countries' budget deficits.

Rejecting it would bar Ireland from emergency EU funding when its current bailout package expires in 2013.

The turnout is believed to have been low. The results are not expected until late on Friday.

Ireland is the only EU state putting it to a national vote but only 12 of the 17 eurozone members need to ratify it, so a "No" would not block the treaty.

As polling stations closed on Thursday evening, the Press Association reported that in Dublin 38% of the electorate voted while in the north-west counties just 20% took part.

BBC Ireland correspondent Mark Simpson said the "Yes" camp feared people, angry with continuing austerity measures, would vote against the treaty to punish the government.

One man who voted "no" was Gerard Cunningham - he told the Associated Press: "Banks in Germany and Britain and elsewhere were just as responsible for the mess we're in. We're sick to the back teeth of being told it's all our own fault."

Another voter, Bridget Connolly voted "yes" on the grounds that "the treaty will solve nothing, but... we're going to need European money next year, plain and simple. We can't afford to be thumbing our noses at Europe right now".

'No to austerity'

The pact, signed by all EU members except the Czech Republic and the UK, allows EU member states to co-ordinate their budget policies and impose penalties on rule-breakers.

It commits all ratifying members to achieve budget deficits of less than 0.5% of economic output.

Last year, Ireland's deficit reached 13.1%.

The country's 3.1m voters have twice rejected European Union treaties - in referendums in 2001 and 2008 - though both votes were overturned in subsequent polls.

Those against the treaty argue that austerity is not working and suggest that the country should instead default on debts at five nationalised banks.