The farming community and those involved in the food industry should strongly endorse the Amsterdam Treaty, the Minister for Agriculture said yesterday.
In a special statement on the issue, Mr Walsh said the treaty was essentially an updating and improvement of the overall structure of the European Union.
He added that EU membership had transformed the Irish countryside over the past 25 years by providing free access to a vastly enlarged marketplace.
"We have also benefited substantially from high market supports and investment aids geared to improving efficiency and enhancing both our production and processing capability.
"As a result we now have a modern farming sector which corresponds with the best in Europe. At the same time our food industry has made a giant leap forward with a number of key Irish players now on the world stage," he said.
Mr Walsh said the Common Agricultural Policy had, in general, provided a very favourable framework for the development of agriculture in Ireland.
Significant adjustments had been made in the MacSharry Reforms in 1992 and negotiations were now under way on the new Agenda 2000 reform packages.
"While there are many aspects of the latest proposals which are unacceptable to Ireland, we must remember that they are at present only proposals and no efforts will be spared in the negotiations to secure the best possible outcome for Ireland in the final agreement," Mr Walsh said. He added that Ireland had received £20 billion from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee fund since 1973. These receipts had risen from £37.1 million in 1973, to £1.5 billion in 1997. The funds had provided enormous support for farmers' incomes and had assisted thousands of Irish farmers in modernising their holdings, controlling pollution and planting forestry on marginal land.
They had also provided income support through headage payments to farmers in disadvantaged areas, had assisted farmers and rural dwellers to develop alternative sources of income and had underpinned the vital research and advisory work of Teagasc.