Current EU proposals for agricultural reform will "seriously damage Irish agriculture and the Irish economy", according to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh.
He said that there was a lack of equity between member-states and different types of production in the proposals for the agricultural sector of Agenda 2000. Some of them were "clearly discriminatory and unacceptable".
In a late-night debate, Mr Walsh criticised most of the CAP reform proposals which, he believed, would significantly affect Irish agriculture and the Irish economy.
The beef and milk sectors accounted for 70 per cent of Irish agricultural output and for 4 per cent of Irish GDP, he said. "In no other member-state is this the case, or even remotely so," he said. "In fact, each of these two sectors is more important to the Irish economy than the entire agriculture sector is to nine other member-states."
They were now at the critical stage of negotiations which would take place at next week's meeting in Brussels of EU agriculture ministers. In their current form they "adversely impact on Ireland", he said.
The proposals had changed significantly from their outline version in 1997 to the ones presented by the EU Commission in March 1998, to include reductions in beef premiums, the abolition of intervention and its replacement by a scheme of aids to private storage, and a move to drop the price of milk to 15 per cent.
The Minister said it was his main objective to secure an agreement with lower price reductions and higher compensation for the beef, milk and arable crop sectors.
He believed it was important that an effective intervention system be retained to ensure that in the event of market disturbances "it will be possible to provide a floor in the market".
Proposals included a milk quota increase of 2 per cent at EU level but Ireland would get a 1 per cent increase while other states would receive increases ranging from 1.3 per cent to 8.4 per cent.
"This is clearly discriminatory and unacceptable. In my view reform of the milk sector is not necessary at this stage and we should not be embarking on changes that would be both expensive and of limited benefit in terms of trade liberalism."
He said that France had put forward the idea of "degressivity", which was the reduction of direct payments to farmers by a certain percentage annually.
He believed this had the backing of the Commission itself and he was concerned that it would impact on the beef sector, in particular, and could give rise to distortions between sectors, regions and member-states. In his view "Ireland would be disproportionately affected".
Mr Dinny McGinley (FG, Donegal South-West) said the Commission proposals would mean a loss of £250 million to Irish agriculture if they were implemented unamended.
He said the proposals were an extension of the CAP reform proposals introduced by Mr Ray MacSharry five years ago. Given the unprecedented crisis in every sector of agriculture, he said, the proposals would be a "death blow" to tens of thousands of farming families throughout the country and would virtually wipe out farming in the west of Ireland from Donegal to Kerry.
The basis of the proposals was a 30 per cent reduction in the amount of direct subsidy being paid to beef producers. This would be devastating for the western seaboard counties.