The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, has told the European Commission that the proposed reform of sugar production laws were "unacceptable" to Ireland.
Ireland is among a number of EU member-states opposed to the changes, which they claim would cause massive job losses and the collapse of national sugar industries.
The plans, authored by EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler, recommend slashing internal prices by some 40 per cent, scrapping the safety-net intervention system and reducing EU output to shake up a policy widely criticized as distorting world trade.
EU farm ministers, meeting in Brussels, gave Mr Fischler their first reaction to his plan, which envisages reform starting in July 2005 - one year before current policy is set to expire.
As expected, the plan got a frosty reception from countries where the idea of slicing into support prices and production quotas threatens to lead to thousands of job losses as less competitive sugar operations are forced to close.
Speaking at a ministers' meeting in Brussels, Mr Walsh rejected the scale of the planned cuts and said the proposals were unacceptable in their current form.
"I can state emphatically, even at this early stage, that these (proposals) are unacceptable to Ireland. The effect of the proposed price reductions, even allowing for compensation, would be to make sugar beet growing and sugar manufacture no longer viable in Ireland," he said.
"I see no reason to rush into reform of any kind at this stage," he said. "I accept that a reform of the sugar regime is necessary and unavoidable ... but I believe that we are moving too far and too quickly."
This view was echoed by several smaller sugar producers such as Finland, which fear that their beet processing industries would simply collapse - especially given that the plan also calls for production quotas to be transferable between countries.
France, the EU's largest sugar producer, said to start a reform in 2005 was way too early and said it was essential for the EU to keep enough tariff protection on sugar imports.
The EU's sugar reform plan comes after other reforms of the bloc's €43 billion farm support programs, as it has come under pressure in world trade talks. EU sugar policy has barely altered since its launch in 1968.
Sugar subsidies cost the EU around €1.7 billion a year, but critics say the true cost of the system is much higher due to the inflated prices charged to consumers based on minimum prices that are more than three times world market levels.
Additional reporting: Reuters