Enlargement of the EU will not pose a threat to the Common Agricultural Policy which will be applied in new member-states, not adjusted to them, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said in Dublin yesterday.
Addressing a joint press conference of farm organisations supporting the Nice Treaty, the Minister said financial provision had been made for the cost of extending the CAP to the new members.
Mr Walsh, who was joined by Opposition spokespersons on agriculture Mr Alan Dukes (FG), Mr Willie Penrose (Lab) and Senator Jim Gibbons (PD), said the Berlin agreement explicitly specified that expenditure earmarked for existing member-states could not be used to meet the cost of enlargement.
Mr Pat O' Rourke, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, said he was also recommending a Yes vote because the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, had removed the doubt for farmers on CAP funding.
"The Taoiseach has given us a categoric assurance that the terms of admission of new member-states will have to be such as to stay within the budget agreed for this purpose," he said.
He said that as the turnout might be lower than in previous referendums on Europe, the farming vote could be critical and he was urging farming families to come out and vote for the treaty.
The Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr Tom Parlon, said his organisation was supporting a Yes vote because it was important to Irish agriculture that the EU continued to function effectively following the accession of new member-states. Mr Dessie Boylan, president of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society, said his members welcomed enlargement because it would provide export opportunities for Irish co-ops.
Mr T.J. Maher, president of Macra na Feirme, and Mr Alan Gillis, chairman of the European Movement, which hosted the conference, said a Yes vote would give Eastern European farmers the chance to receive the same opportunities as Irish farmers and the chance for similar stability.