This article is from page 71 of the 2008-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
40 per cent of farmers now Say that they are ready to vote Yes in the upcoming election.
The number of farmers now com- mitted to voting No stands at 33 per cent with a sizeable 27 per cent still undecided.
The Irish Farmers Organisation have been on the verge of endors- ing the No campaign over the last number of weeks following increas-
ing anger over the handling, by EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson, of the WTO.
Galway MEP Sean O’Neachtain spoke out on Thursday last calling on the farmers of Clare to Vote Yes for the EU Lisbon Reform Treaty.
O’Neachtain has been one of the treaty’s strongest advocates and has spoken out at many public meetings over the last month.
“IT strongly believe that it is in the future economic and political inter- ests of the people of County Clare and the people of Ireland that the EU Lisbon Reform Treaty is ratified,” he Sr nLee
‘This treaty is about ensuring that the EU institutions reform how they
will take decisions into the future so as to ensure that the European Union becomes more effective and more efficient in how it will carry out its business into the future.
A more effective European Union will help to ensure that the EU can bring forward new laws which will help to develop the European econo- my to a stronger extent. The ratifica- tion of this treaty will guarantee that the EU will be able to address new problems such as climate change and the security of energy supplies in a more structured manner. No one country alone can tackle all these problems on their own.”
Specifically targeting farmers, O Neachtain said that a yes vote will
help Ireland to effectively address the concerns of Irish farmers in the context of the CAP Health Check 2008 — 2013
“We welcome any measures at an EU level which will simplify the actual operation of the CAP, and, in particular, the administration of the single farm payment,” he said.
“But we clearly do not support the proposal to increase compulsory modulation from five to 13 per cent, which means that farmers will lose eight per cent in the value of their annual single farm payment from the year 2012, and it is proposed by the European Commission that these monies will be re-directed to other rural development programmes.”