Fine Gael has not lost the farming vote to Fianna Fáil, Mr Alan Dukes, the FG spokesman on agriculture said yesterday at the launch of his party's document on the sector.
Mr Dukes said Fianna Fáil's treatment of the farm organisations following the launch of the beef blockade had created a great deal of worry in farming circles.
"The Government seems to have taken away the right from the farm organisations to defend their own members and act in concert." He said the same attitude had been visible when farmers picketed a milk plant in Co Donegal last year.
He said this was a major issue on the doorsteps during this campaign, where farmers were expressing concern about the future.
Mr Dukes said Fine Gael supported the continuation of the milk quota system and the maintenance of export refunds for the Irish beef industry.
It also supported the live export trade and would oppose any attempt to reduce the size of the Irish suckler herd.
He said Fine Gael believed the EU ewe premium was set too low and had to be increased to make sheep farming competitive with the beef sector. He said the sheep identification system was unworkable.
The EU, he said, had not been "muscular enough" in the world trade talks and a Fine Gael- led Government would ensure that Ireland's interests would be protected.
It would also pressurise Brussels to reduce the level of bureaucracy and seek reductions in the levels of penalties currently applied for minor breaches of schemes.
Mr Dukes said Fine Gael supported enlargement of the EU and would seek to ensure that Irish interests would not be damaged.
He wanted an integrated approach to the implementation of the three EU directives on nitrate, water framework and waste management. He said the directives impinged on the Rural Environment Protection Scheme which should be updated but not complicated.
He said the Government's attempts to reopen the Egyptian market for beef were pathetic. Nothing had happened since it was formally declared open on October 7th last except Irish beef exporters were selling Argentinian and Brazilian beef there. Mr Dukes said he would like to see the deals allowing access to the European markets by other countries being renegotiated.
"We cannot stop Brazilian and Argentinian beef and other products coming in, but it is our belief that these products should all be labelled for the consumer," he said.
Asked if there was little difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael agriculture policies, Mr Dukes said the main difference was that FG would implement the policies it put forward, not just talk about them.