Bishops and charities are actively undermining the Irish agriculture industry, the new president of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) said in his inaugural speech today.
Padraig Walshe, elected earlier this month, today also warned the Government not to take farmers' support for Social Partnership for granted.
He said charities such as Trócaire and Oxfam had "succeeded in destroying the Irish sugar industry" in their campaign that contributed to sharp reductions in EU support prices that rendered sugar refinement in Ireland unviable.
He said the beneficiaries of the reforms were not poor farmers in developing countries but "the sugar barons of Brazil and Australia, and multinationals like Tate & Lyle".
The Co Laois man rejected accusations that Irish farmers were damaging the interests of African farmers and said EU policy was "supporting poor farmers in the least developed countries.
"In the past year, the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been subjected to an onslaught of criticism, led by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and their agent in Brussels, Peter Mandelson. Their fellow travellers in Ireland - Oxfam, Trócaire and, disappointingly, some of the Catholic Bishops, preach the same misinformation.
"I am committing myself to making a determined case at home and in Europe in defence of our agricultural supports," Mr Walshe told the IFA national congress.
With farm incomes under threat and the value of agriculture's contribution to the Irish economy undervalued, Mr Walshe said the IFA's participation in Social Partnership was "conditional on a fair allocation of national resources.
"It is also conditional on a properly funded programme to strengthen the competitiveness of Irish agriculture in response to the cuts under CAP reform and the damaging WTO [World Trade Organization] agreement."
He said the IFA was willing to support partnership. "But I want to say to the Taoiseach: Don't take us for granted. The IFA will not shore up or give political legitimacy to any so-called Partnership agreement, which is no more than a pay deal between the Government and the unions."
He also warned that economic success over the past ten years had pushed Irish earnings "to the top of the EU income league".
"As a result, budget transfers from Brussels will decline and the Border, Midlands and Western region will lose Objective 1 status."
Some €800 million in farm schemes was being 50 per cent funded by the EU, but that contribution was set to fall, and the Government would have to make up the difference, Mr Walshe warned.