A call by the Irish Farmers' Association for a Yes vote in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was welcomed yesterday by Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan.
Ms Coughlan said the EU's Common Agricultural Policy had played a key role in the development of farming and the food industry in Ireland since 1973.
The IFA was right, therefore, to emphasise the importance of Ireland remaining at the centre of the EU's decision-making process. The Minister's comments followed those of EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel on a visit to Ireland this week.
Ms Coughlan said she was returning to Brussels yesterday with "a huge gift", namely the news that the IFA leadership had recommended a Yes vote in the referendum.
Farmer hostility towards the Government was considered one of the factors in the defeat of the first referendum on the Nice Treaty in 2001. But IFA president Pádraig Walshe has strongly urged farmers to vote Yes in the referendum due to be held this year.
"For over 35 years every one of my predecessors and this organisation have supported the development of the European Union. Farmers are best served by being at the heart of Europe than on the fringes," he said.
"It is important for us to have the access we have to people like the commissioner and her officials and we can influence people a lot better from there than if we were to recommend anything other than a Yes vote the commissioner might not be as happy to speak to us as she often does," he said.
Responding, the commissioner said she was very happy to be able to go back with this clear message from the IFA.
"That is a huge gift for me today because it is crucial for all of us that we get a Yes vote in Ireland as well, probably the only place where a referendum is taking place," Ms Boel said.