The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has today launched its campaign for a Yes vote in the Lisbon treaty referendum.
IFA president Padraig Walshe, who unveiled the campaign in Dublin this morning, has come under criticism for supporting the Lisbon treaty.
A new Farmers for No group has warned a Yes vote in Lisbon would jeopardise farm succession rights and lead to a massive influx of Turkish farmers into the EU.
James Reynolds, chairman of Farmers for No group, has described Lisbon was “a power-grab by the big states” in the EU.
Speaking this morning, Mr Walshe said the IFA had threatened to campaign for No vote last time due to the dispute over the European attitude toward the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Government's role in using its veto.
"What we said last year was it would be very hard to convince farmers to vote Yes if there wasn't something done about the attitude in WTO and the sell-out basically of farming interests and food production interests right across Europe to cheaper imports of dubious quality coming from other parts of the world.
"Now the WTO is off the agenda. The problem this year is much worse at farm level in terms of the income crisis out there. . . We're seeing various commodities at levels that haven't been seen since the early 80s and even back into the 70s," he said on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
Questioned why his organisation was not using its Lisbon stance to put pressure on the Government over cutbacks, Mr Walshe said: "The problems at the moment regarding the cutbacks in the various schemes are exclusively Irish Government decisions, nothing whatsoever to do with Europe.
"That point has to be emphasised, and we are asking farmers to differentiate the two."
Mr Walshe said Lisbon was "the wrong target" for farmers angry with the Government and the IFA's campaign against cutbacks would continue "right up to the budget".
Mr Walshe said one of the reasons for voting Yes was that European membership had given Ireland access to an unrestricted market of over 500 million consumers. "As a food exporter, as a food island . . . access to that market is crucial for us.
"Also, membership of the euro has kept interest rates low over the past number of years, and it ha benefited Irish agriculture," Mr Walshe said.
"The future of the Common Agricultural Policy is up for renegotiation in the next couple of years, and we feel it is much more important for us to be involved in the heart of those negotiations, that we can influence what is likely to happen going forward rather than being on the periphery as we might be if we were to vote No."
Referring to the Farmers for No group, Mr Walshe said he had made no secret since last January of his intention to recommend a Yes vote to the IFA's executive council. "The executive council of IFA . . . voted unanimously in July to recommend the Yes vote, and I have absolutely no doubt that is the majority opinion in the IFA.
"I've no doubt that there's a small minority of people who have a different opinion, but that's their entitlement to do so."
The IFA chief denied there was any question that farm succession rights were threatened by Lisbon, describing the claim as a "red herring".
Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris this morning called on farmers to vote against the treaty. “The Lisbon Treaty was a bad deal for rural Ireland in 2008 and it remains a bad deal today,” the Kerry North TD said.
“If the Lisbon Treaty is passed the EU Commission will have the power to initiate and conclude international trade agreements and in all but the most exceptional circumstances the Irish Government will no longer have a veto at the European Council," he said.
Last month, the IFA's 53-member executive council unanimously decided to back Lisbon.