The leader of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Pat O'Rourke, last night asked what had happened to the dividend for voting Yes to the Nice Treaty, following the draft EU agreement on the Common Agricultural Policy.
His response to the deal, which will offer candidate countries 25 per cent of the direct aid received by EU farmers in 2004, rising to 40 per cent in 2007 and 10 per cent per year thereafter, has been greeted with suspicion by the farm organisations here.
Calling on the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to reject the deal, Mr O'Rourke said while there could be short-term gains, there would be long-term losses for Irish farmers.
"While there will be no major interference with the CAP until 2007, after that there will be more people sitting around the table with knives looking for their cut from the EU pie," he said.
"The draft agreement will result in cuts in support for Irish farmers and does not provide a solid foundation for farm income into the future for both current EU farmers or those farmers in the proposed new member-states. The solution to this problem is increased funding to finance the CAP and not to make the income situation worse for all farmers."
Mr O'Rourke said that from 2007, based on the agreement, there could be substantial cuts in farmer payments to fund the completion of enlargement. That was only four years away, so it was imperative that the Taoiseach defend the position of the Irish farm sector.
"I have major concerns that we are witnessing the beginning of the disbandment of a Common Agricultural Policy and the renationalisation of substantial parts of the CAP.
"This would not be in Ireland's interest and must not be allowed to happen," Mr O'Rourke said.
Mr John Dillon, president of the Irish Farmers' Association, said the major implication of the Brussels deal was that the Fischler CAP reform proposals would have to go back to the drawing board.
The key challenge would be to ensure that family farms have a viable future through a combination of fair market returns on community preference and supply management, as well as the maintenance of direct payments and environmental and rural development policies, he said.
Mr Dillon said the IFA viewed the Fischler plan as unbalanced because it seemed to be abandoning price supports, dismissing farmers' role as food producers and linking future direct payments totally to environmental management.
"I am disappointed that Germany, as a country likely to gain so much in economic and political terms from enlargement, has forced an early decision on the future CAP budget when the decision should not have been taken until 2006," he said.
The agreement that overall farm spending would only increase in line with inflation from 2007, was also questioned by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Owners' Association, which said it was hard to see how this could adequately cover the needs of new members without reducing the amounts available to the existing 15.
Its president, Mr Charlie Reilly, said the agreement did not resolve such issues as what kind of CAP would be in place in the future and the fact that there was an urgent need to tackle the deficiencies in the current one.
Fine Gael's agriculture spokesman, Mr Billy Timmins, welcomed the agreement and said it would stall the Fischler proposals until at least 2007.
He said the Government must continue to defend the CAP and the future of family farms, bearing in mind that although our national economy had increased by 100 per cent over the last decades, revenues from agriculture had increased by 5 to 6 per cent only and agricultural revenue had actually shrunk by comparison in the 1990s.