The "irresponsible" role being played by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in the world trade talks would make it very difficult for the farming and rural community to vote Yes to the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish Farmers' Association warned yesterday.
The outcome of the World Trade Organisation talks is expected to become clear in the next two months, just as the Lisbon referendum campaign gets into full swing.
The farmers' group has called for a Yes vote in the referendum but IFA president Pádraig Walshe told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs that there was "one major negative force" at play.
" Mandelson is working behind closed doors at the moment in Geneva in what we believe is a reckless destruction of the Common Agricultural Policy," he said. "He is prepared to sell out the beef industry in Ireland to get a deal at any cost.
