THE Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr John Donnelly, yesterday attacked the Government and the unions, accusing them of dishonesty in their concern about unemployment.
Addressing the annual meeting of his organisation, Mr Donnelly said that the greatest impediment to the economy was high taxation, which he described as the penalty for high public spending.
"The recent record is appalling. Current spending on the public services in the past five years has increased by St per cent at a time when inflation totalled only 13.2 per cent and the economy was growing rapidly," he said.
"The result is that a single taxpayer on average industrial earning in Ireland is paying tax on his last pound earned at 55.7 per cent. His counterpart in Northern Ireland and Britain is paying tax at 34 per cent on his last pound," he went on.
It is nothing short of dishonest for politicians and trade union leaders to claim they are concerned about unemployment when it is clear that the real cause of unemployment is their own tax and spend policies" said Mr Donnelly.
Delivering his presidential address, Mr Donnelly warned that Irish agriculture and the agrifood industry had to cope with threats on two fronts, the reduction of EU export refunds and the high value of the pound against sterling.
He accused the EU Commission of over reacting to a favourable world market for produce which led them to reduce export refunds to Irish livestock and dairy farmers.
He said that at the same time EU intervention stocks of beef and dairy products had disappeared and cereal stocks were down to minimum levels.
The food industry, he added, was also under threat from the high value of the pound against sterling. Beef, cheddar cheese and mushroom exports to the UK and lamb exports to France were suffering the full brunt of the currency problem.
He said the core of the IFA message to the Government on the currency issue over the past six months was that if it could not provide a competitive exchange rate, then taxes and PRSI levels would have to be cut to UK levels in the Budget.