Madam, - The sight of Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte strolling through the National Ploughing Championships in Mogeely won't fool farmers who would be driven out of business by Fine Gael's and Labour's pals in the Green Party.
It is no coincidence that the Fine Gael and Labour leaders left Green leader Trevor Sargent at home when they headed to Cork. The Greens' anti-agriculture policies are rejected by farmers throughout the country. Enda and Pat owe it to the farmers they met at the championships to explain what Irish agriculture will be asked to sacrifice in order to bring their desperate coalition with the Greens into power.
The Greens want to destruct the CAP, are opposed to live exports and are against rural one-off housing. Certain members of Labour are supporting the Greens in calling for the re-examination of subsidies given to producers in the developed world, a thinly disguised code for the scrapping of the CAP.
Pat Rabbitte's new-found interest in the farming community flies in the face of his party's European election manifesto last year which called for an end to the direct subsidy of agricultural products. In reality that too is the scrapping of CAP.
The Mogeely charade won't fool farmers, who know the party which represents their best interests is Fianna Fáil. - Yours, etc,
BILLY KELLEHER TD, Deputy Government Chief Whip, Dillons Cross, Cork.