Direct payments to farmers, currently standing at 48 per cent of farm income, at £940 million, will head for 60 per cent if new CAP reforms are put in place, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said yesterday.
The reforms, which are part of the Agenda 2000 package, will cost the Irish economy a total of £226 million, the Minister told a seminar in Dublin.
Mr Walsh said that the Government was opposing the proposals, which include cutting EU price supports for beef by 30 per cent and price supports for milk by 15 per cent.
The decision of the Cardiff EU summit to conclude negotiations on the package by next spring added to the urgency.
While the Department of Agriculture had not yet placed priorities on the sectors which needed to be defended in the face of the Commission's proposals, counterproposals were being prepared for the negotiations.
Mr Walsh told a press conference that he did not accept the Commission's plans. The proposal to allocate additional milk quotas to member-states, discriminated against Ireland, which would only receive an extra 2 per cent. He was also opposed to the reduction in the level of beef and suckler cow premium rights, the proposals to abolish beef intervention and the changes in the extensification arrangements in the beef sector.