There was broad opposition to the Fischler reforms across a broad spectrum of Irish agriculture yesterday. The largest farm organisation, the Irish Farmers Association, described the proposals as a "particularly severe attack on the Irish beef industry".
Its president, Mr John Dillon said the dairy cut proposals would seriously undermine the dairy industry and erode farm incomes even further.
The normally sedate Irish Co- operative Organisation Society, representing the co-operative movement, called on the Government to strongly oppose the package.
Its president, Mr Dessie Boylan, said the dairy intervention and other support cuts would cost the dairy industry here in the region of €400 million whereas the compensation on offer would only be about €183 million.
The Irish Meat Association said the reforms would have a devastating impact on farming and on the meat processing industry.
The organisation, which represents meat plants, urged the Government to strongly reject the package because of the damage decoupling would do to the beef and sheep industries.
"Cattle output could fall by up to 30 per cent or 60,000 head per year, equivalent to the throughput of 10 meat factories employing almost 2,000 people," said Mr John Smith, chief executive of IMA.
He said national sheep output was expected to fall by 500,000 head per annum, putting a further 300 jobs at risk.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president, Mr Pat O'Rourke, predicted the package could slash farm incomes by as much as 45 per cent.
He said the dairy proposals would totally undermine the profitability of the dairy industry here and would take €250 million out of farmers' pockets and cost the economy €400 million.
The Fine Gael spokesman on agriculture, Mr Billy Timmins, also called for strong government opposition to the package, saying the proposals would lead to a loss of income and jobs in the agri-food sector.
However, Dr Mary Upton, Labour's agriculture spokeswoman, said the package provided a timely and useful background for a debate on farming which was not subsidy driven. She was concerned at the warnings of job losses from the meat factories.
However, there was support for the package from the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association which said it was clear from all the studies put forward that decoupling was good for income as far as cattle and sheep farmers were concerned.
It would be vital, said its president, Mr Charlie Reilly, that the EU take a tough stance in World Trade negotiations in relation to imports.
Sinn Féin's agriculture spokesman, Mr Martin Ferris, called for a full and open debate on the proposed reforms which would properly evaluate their effects.