A demand that Irish consumers should pay more for milk and beef made yesterday by Mr Pat O'Rourke, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, has been rejected by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh.
Mr O'Rourke, who heads the second largest farming organisation, said farmers could not continue to produce food at the prices they were being paid and the increases must come from the consumers and be passed back to farmers.
"We need to get the returns back from the marketplace because we have not had an increase in two years, despite the fact that trade union leaders negotiated a 20 per cent wage increase in the same period," he said.
He said consumers now had the disposable income to meet the increases as the spend on the weekly food bill had dropped from 30 per cent of wages to 10 per cent.
But Mr Walsh, who was in Limerick to address the organisation's annual general meeting, rejected Mr O'Rourke's call that food price increases be passed back to the farming community.
"I do not accept the consumers should be asked to pay more for product. I do not go along with that at all. Consumers are paying sufficient for their food," said Mr Walsh.
The Minister said there were other efficiencies and other margins that could be looked at rather than seeking to squeeze more from individual families for various products.
Mr O'Rourke had said his demand was being made against the background of farmers being forced off the land because they could not afford to produce beef and milk at the prices they were being paid. He said that in the last six years, 14,000 farmers had left the land and over 5,000 of these were in dairying and this could not continue.
Mr O'Rourke said the legitimate gains by the trade unions made in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, in which his organisation took part, had increased incomes generally by nearly 20 per cent.
"I have already said publicly to trade unions when the Glanbia issue on the pint of milk was being aired, that they must realise that if wages increase, the price of food must increase. They cannot have it both ways," said Mr O'Rourke.
Mr O'Rourke told journalists that he did not regard the consumer as "the soft option" and rejected suggestions that the farming organisations were afraid to challenge the retailers or processors for a fairer share of the price.
Mr Walsh said that in the last 12 months, the Irish and European taxpayer had paid out £300 million in support of the Irish beef industry for the slaughter for destruction scheme.
The farm income situation, following a decline in the three years up to 2000, had improved considerably last year. Aggregate income had risen by 7.5 per cent and average income per person employed in agriculture rose by 14 per cent.
Farm incomes would be up again this year in the dairy, pig and cereals sectors and sheep farmers were having a record year.
Beef and cattle incomes were not going to be as disastrous as expected because of supports put in place.
Mr Walsh also announced that the £6 million pork trade with the US, banned since the foot-and-mouth outbreak, would resume from today.