This article is from page 73 of the 2008-06-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 73 JPG
. The advertisment read, “Mandelson’s WTO cuts and the Lisbon Treaty are linked, mes- sage to the Government, use the veto or lose the farmers.”
This is the strongest statement to date on the intentions of the IFA
and should significant progress not be made today the organisation are likely to urge farmers to vote no.
Meanwhile former Fine Gael Taoi- seach John Bruton has urged Clare farmers to vote yes in an open letter to the county’s farmers.
“T’m writing this to The Clare Peo- ple newspaper about Clare agricul- ture and the Lisbon Treaty,” read the atoe
“The EU has been good for Clare agriculture. Before Ireland joined the EU, we depended on the British market. I was Fine Gael spokesman on agriculture at that time and I well remember how prices paid to Irish farmers were artificially depressed
by a cheap food policy and a defi- ciency payments scheme that privi- leged British farmers. The European Union did away with all that.
“Tt introduced a level playing field. It pumped billions into rural Ireland, opened up markets we never had be- fore, and helped us invest heavily in skills training. “Although the two are not connected, some are now trying to persuade farmers to use the Lisbon OB IA Oo. ed coer TID elo AMBNIEKeA snes about a possible deal on agriculture in the WTO. It 1s important to be prudent about this and calculate all the consequences.”
In the letter Mr. Bruton, the EU Ambassador to the United States,
said that Ireland, and its farmers, had many ways of influencing EU trade policy.
“We are strongly represented in the Council of Ministers, through the Eu- ropean Commission, the European Parliament, and through the new role the Dail would gain under the Lisbon Treaty. These are the ways to influ- ence trade policy,” he continued.
“In contrast, voting ‘No’ in a refer- endum could be a very blunt instru- ment. Many Clare farm families get incomes from jobs outside agricul- ture, often in businesses that came to Ireland because the country is at the heart of EU policy-making and has access to the EU market.”