The Nice referendum may be lost if the Government does not take steps to address the current crisis in farming, the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society president told two Ministers of State yesterday.
Mr Dessie Boylan and other ICOS representatives met Mr Dick Roche and Mr Tom Parlon.
In a statement, Mr Boylan said: "While ICOS supports a Yes vote in the referendum and firmly believes that a Yes vote is very much in the interests of farmers, the food industry and the wider economy, our concern is the perception that the Government is not doing enough to address the financial crisis in agriculture, in both the long and the short term."
Farmers expected to see signs that the Government was taking the income crisis seriously and would deal effectively with threats posed by the Mid-Term Review, he said.
At a meeting of the Irish Alliance for Europe yesterday, the former Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald said the Nice Treaty contained nothing that could conceivably justify its rejection.
It would be total madness to allow a combination of an exteme Catholic right, the Greens, Sinn Féin and smaller left-wing parties to throw away Ireland's future in Europe by a No vote, he said.
The rejection of the treaty would lose Ireland the goodwill of all its European partners as well as of the 10 applicant countries which were ready to join.
The good will had been won by being positive and constructive members of the Union and by running five successful presidencies. It had brought benefits to the country beyond its due, including big increases in regional and social funds, many concessions to agriculture, the retention of low corporate tex rate and huge benefits for the fishing industry.
Young Fine Gael yesterday appealed to Irish voters to vote Yes. "Voting No risks relegating Ireland to the second division of of EU membership along with states such as Britain or Denmark," a YFG spokesman, Mr Leo Varadkar, said.