The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, has been accused of providing "patchy" information on the impact of the World Trade Framework Agreement on agriculture, which was negotiated last weekend in Geneva.
The Opposition spokesman on agriculture and food, Mr Billy Timmins, called on Mr Walsh to place all aspects of "this deal, good and bad, in the public arena, so that Irish farmers can know what has been negotiated on their behalf".
He said: "I am calling on Minister Walsh to clearly set out the implications this most recent EU agreement will have for Irish farmers. We have been consistently reassured by Minister Walsh that the recent CAP reform proposals, accepted by Irish farmers, would form the EU's negotiating bottom line."
He put questions to the Minister, first asking him what was the position on farm subsidies, and would they stay in place post-2013.
He asked if Ireland would be able to have the sugar beet industry protected by having it recognised as a "sensitive industry", as permitted for the beef and dairy industry.
"On the issue of changes to the export refund system, given Ireland's high dependency on the export market - over 40 per cent of our dairy produce is sold to non-EU states - it is important that Irish farmers are fully aware what the EU's position on export competition is.
"We have been told that all forms of export competition will now be subject to rules, but exactly what form will these rules take?"
The developed countries agreed that over $300 billion in subsidies to farmers in rich countries will have to be phased out.
However, because of the recent CAP reforms which broke the link between the production of beef, milk and cereals, the direct payment of €1.7 billion paid annually to Irish farmers will not be hit.
The Irish beef and dairy industries are to be recognised as "sensitive industries", but there is still confusion about sugar beet and cereal production.
Yesterday, Mr Pat Ivory, of IBEC, the employers' organisation, said there was a "quite positive" reaction in the non-agricultural sector for the momentum which had been achieved in Geneva. He said there had been movement in areas of non-agricultural goods' market access, services and trade facilitation.
He said the chemical and pharmaceutical industries had seen as positive the possibility of the sectoral elimination of tariffs on a zero to zero basis. He said there were ongoing negotiations on trade facilitation which would be of particular importance to the Irish IT and technology sector.
This would involve faster clearance of goods through customs, and a reduction in delays in finding access to markets.
He said that since the weekend it now appeared there would be a full session of the world trade talks in Hong Kong in December 2005, and it was possible that agreement would be achieved there.