A proposal by the EU to cut direct payments to farmers and divert spending to other rural dwellers has angered farmers.
The controversial proposal was made by EU president José Manuel Barroso, who proposed that the amount of money paid directly to farmers in their new single payment should be reduced from 2009 and what would amount to 1 per cent of farm payments should go into the rural development fund.
The response from the Irish Farmers Association president John Dillon was immediate. Such a proposal was "totally unacceptable to Ireland and was a serious breach of faith with farmers".
"This is a blatant breach by president Barroso of solemn commitments given to farmers by the former agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler in 2003 that the single farm payment was fully guaranteed until 2013," he said.
However, Irish Rural Link, the national lobby group for Irish rural development, welcomed the comment but claimed that it was simply not enough for rural communities.
Chief executive Séamus Boland called on the EU Commission to take a brave and forward- thinking decision by committing at least 4 per cent of the agriculture budget towards rural development
"It has been shown by various studies and reports that farming is in decline which poses serious questions with regard to rural areas and developing rural areas in the future," he said.
"Rural development policy, which has been seen as the preserve of the farmer, especially by the farming organisations, needs to be designed and implemented for the benefit of the wider rural community which obviously includes farmers but much more."
However Mr Dillon, who has always insisted that a vibrant farming sector is the keystone to rural development said the commission would have a major credibility problem with Irish farmers if this proposal was pursued.
"Time and again, when political agreements are reached on Cap reform, commitments to farmers are being broken as politicians try to raid farmers' income entitlements for their own purposes," he said.
The move was also criticised by the Irish Cattle and Sheepowners Association which said there was no justification for any more cutbacks and that there was considerable difficulty in finding sensible ways of spending the money already diverted away from farmers.
Mr Boland called for a widening of the debate on rural development as well as exploring ways in which rural communities could play a bigger role in it that would see an improvement in the quality of life for all.