IFA calls for yes to Lisbon and rejects ‘go it alone’ ideal

PEOPLE arrogantly believed Ireland could “go it alone” and no longer needed Europe’s help when they rejected the Lisbon treaty last year, farmers’ leader Padraig Walshe has said.

Mr Walshe, president of the Irish Farmers’ Association, insisted he had no regrets about his delay in supporting the treaty in 2008.

At the start of the campaign last year, the IFA threatened to call for a no vote unless the Government agreed to veto any world trade deal unacceptable to Irish agricultural interests.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen relented and agreed to use the veto, if required. The IFA urged its members to vote yes, but the treaty vote was lost and many in the pro-Lisbon camp criticised the association for delaying its support.

With the second referendum looming on October 2, there is no such delay and Mr Walshe launched the IFA’s campaign for a yes vote in Dublin yesterday.

Mr Walshe said the recession had brought home to people just how important Europe was to Ireland.

“I detected a more arrogant attitude, if you like, around the time of the last poll that this country could go it alone and that we were a different society from what we had been in the past,” he said. “I even detected among some of the higher echelons of society that we were a post-agricultural society, that we were into a hi-tech economy and we were nearly at a stage where we could go it alone.

“I think one thing that the recession has brought home to people is that we are very dependent as an economy on international partners for our exports and for a lot of business that we do, particularly in the food industry.”

Mr Walshe said farmers had compelling reasons to back the Lisbon treaty, not least the fact that the EU offered them “unrestricted access to a market of 500 million people”. In addition, the Single Farm Payment contributed 60% of net farm income, while Irish farmers and the rural economy benefited “significantly” from the REPS scheme.

But the “Farmers for No” group, campaigning against the treaty, accused Mr Walshe and the association of “colluding in a yes push with [an] untrustworthy Government who have left farmers in huge debt”.

Sinn Féin, the only Dáil party opposed to Lisbon, also called on farmers to reject the treaty.

Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris said the European Commission “aggressively promotes free trade irrespective of the costs to European family farms and rural communities”.

Meanwhile, the Referendum Commission launched a campaign urging people who are not on the register of voters to claim their vote in time for the referendum.

Details are available on www.lisbontreaty2009.ie.