IRELAND is being "blackguarded" by other EU countries in the common agricultural reform Agenda 2000 negotiations, the IFA president has said.
Mr Tom Parlon told an emergency meeting of the IFA's national council in Dublin yesterday he was depressed over the failure to find a reform package for Ireland's farmers.
He said this was being caused by certain member-states who were demanding almost as much as they contributed. He said the German government's stance on the budget was a direct attack on European unity and cohesion.
"Our wealth is very recent and it's very fragile and depends greatly on multinational companies, especially those in the information technology area who could pull out overnight," he said.
"Ireland's infrastructure is far, far behind the rest of Europe and we may have to fall back on our largest industry, agriculture, and that is why the negotiations we are involved in are so important," he said.
But, he said, it was his view that Ireland and its negotiators were being blackguarded in the negotiations because intensive agriculture was being looked after at the expense of Irish farming.
"For instance, there is a proposal for a new veal premium for intensive countries like Holland, Italy and France, which will cost over 300 million ECU, which deprives Ireland of £15 million in the Irish beef sector," he said.
He said there was a proposal to give Italy a 6 per cent increase in its milk quota and 10 per cent to Spain, while Ireland, which had a guarantee that it would get any available milk quota going back in 1984, was only being offered 2.8 per cent.
There were some encouraging signs in the negotiations, he said. The threat to reduce the national suckler cow herd had been averted and he was hoping Ireland's alliance with France on this and other issues would remain firm.
Pledging to back the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, as long as they maintained a strong defence of Ireland's vital national interests, Mr Parlon said there was no room for bickering at home as the Taoiseach and Minister had an enormous challenge ahead of them.
Mr Parlon said he wanted to nail the lie that Ireland had benefited from the last reform of the CAP in 1992. The people who did best out of the last reform were the intensive grain-growers on the Continent.
The IFA national council decided it would continue to lobby and brief Oireachtas members and MEPs in advance of this week's resumed talks in Brussels.
There is no firm expectation that a package will be agreed in coming days and it is believed resolution may not come before the end of this month.