Farmers insist they cannot be blamed for the No vote, writes Agriculture Correspondent Seán Mac Connell.
PERHAPS THE most astonishing claim made since the declaration of the decisive No vote in the Lisbon referendum came yesterday from the general secretary of the Irish Farmers' Association, Michael Berkery.
"More farmers voted Yes in the referendum than from any other sector of Irish society and I am prepared to back that up with hard facts," he told The Irish Times. It was he who masterminded the campaign to extract the four-letter word "veto" from Brian Cowen in relation to any World Trade Organisation deal.
Those who know the Tipperary man who has been at the centre of agricultural politics for decades know he stands firmly over his claims, though it is now as plain as a pikestaff that many, many farmers and their families voted No.
"We did an exit poll by text on Friday morning and we texted 3,500 farmers and asked them what they had done. Seventy-six per cent said they had voted Yes and 24 per cent said they had voted No," he said.
"That is a very broad sample but I am not relying just on that. Farmers did respond to our very intensive campaign for a Yes vote over the last 10 days when we threw enormous resources at getting a Yes vote," he added.
However, now that the political parties are picking over what is left of our fragile relationship with the EU, Berkery conceded that now the electorate had spoken, Ireland and Irish agriculture was in what he termed "an uncomfortable place".
His 85,000-strong organisation has pledged to work constructively with the Government to find a solution to the problems that have now arisen and to try and avoid a two-tier EU, which would not serve the country well.
But the IFA, like the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association and the Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association, all maintain that they are not prepared to take the blame for the No vote win.
ICMSA president Jackie Cahill, for instance, conceded that the No vote was not going to help Irish influence in Brussels where vital decisions on agriculture are made on a weekly basis. "I don't think the farming vote went against the treaty and there is no evidence to suggest that the rural No vote was any higher than the urban No vote," he said.
ICSA president Malcolm Thompson said he had been in contact with farm organisations in France, Holland, Italy and Spain and they welcomed the fact that the Irish had voted down the treaty. "We farming organisations had no control over the urban vote and we could only advise our members on what we thought was the best thing," he said.
"In the case of ICSA, our executive recommended by a 60-40 majority to opt for a Yes vote and I think our members voted in the polling booths in that order," he said.
However, farm activists whom I spoke to around the country said a lot of issues had persuaded their members not to take the Yes road on Thursday last. One, a staunch Fianna Fáiler from north Cork, told me he had voted No because he blamed the EU for the closure of the Mallow sugar factory. Another in Sligo said he had voted No because of the row on the nitrates directive and because of the loss of cancer facilities in the county.
In Roscommon, a man who would normally vote Yes said he had voted No because he wanted to "give a swipe" to the Eurocrats. In Clare, the issue was Shannon airport and a Fine Gael farmer told me he had voted No to "get rid of Enda Kenny as leader".
Now, however, the IFA in particular, will have some difficulty in establishing a good working relationship with the Taoiseach, who had refused to meet the organisation in the run-up to its declaration of support for the treaty. It is said that Mr Cowen is suspicious of the IFA and regards it as a Fine Gael organisation, and as one insider put it, "Brian was never that keen on them".