IFA POLL:THE LATEST opinion poll on voting intentions towards the Lisbon Treaty shows more than 80 per cent of farmers will vote Yes in the referendum next week.
The Red C Farmers Journal /IFA poll, indicates that 69 per cent of respondents will vote Yes, 15 per cent No and 16 per cent are undecided, according to the Irish Farmers Association (IFA). The sample size was 1,000 farmers.
When the Don’t Know figure is excluded, the poll reveals 82 per cent of the farming community will vote Yes. Among those likely to vote, the Yes vote is even higher at 84 per cent.
Commenting on the poll at the National Ploughing Championships yesterday, IFA president Pádraig Walshe said the overriding reasons for voting Yes have struck a chord with farmers.
“They include access to a market of 500 million consumers, the stability provided by the euro, the single farm payment, and the benefits to farmers and the rural economy.”
He said the findings were encouraging and the IFA had been one of the first national organisations to come out unanimously for a Yes vote.
“We have communicated directly with each of our 85,000 members . . . distributed posters through agri-businesses and held public meetings around the country in recent weeks on the issue,” he said.
Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Jackie Cahill announced the association’s national council had unanimously endorsed a Yes vote in the referendum.