Five years ago, when the Irish EU Commissioner brought forward his package to reform the CAP, he was nicknamed "Cromwell". His image was burned and his name abused from Brussels to Bundoran.
The reforms were put in place in tandem with the first ever world trade accord under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to deal with agriculture and within two years, it seemed, Irish farmers never had it so good.
The compensation negotiated by Mr Ray MacSharry for Europe's farmers for the predicted drop in income became additional profit as the produce price fall never materialised for a variety of reasons. These included a world shortage of grain caused by flooding and drought, an increased demand for meat and dairy products which ensured stable prices until last year.
The expected fall in consumer prices did not take place even though EU officials argue that the reforms succeeded in keeping food price increases to a minimum. Mr MacSharry has since retired from the EU, the GATT organisation is now renamed the World Trade Organisation and Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, has embarked on a fresh attempt to reform the CAP.
His new package basically extends the 1992 reforms in terms of further shifts from price support to direct income payments to farmers but this time Europe's agricultural face has changed.
The package, Agenda 2000, now called the Santer proposals, plans to cut supports for cereals by 20 per cent in the year 2000, the beef intervention price will be reduced by 30 per cent between 2000 and 2002 and while the milk quota system will remain in place until 2006, the support price will be reduced by 10 per cent.
This will be done against the background of a new world trade agreement which is determined to wipe out export refunds. EU exporters receive compensation in the form of export refunds for selling products outside the artificially high EU market. The cuts in export refunds which were agreed at the GATT talks are already creating difficulties and Irish factories are complaining that they cannot sell outside the EU because the export refund levels are too low.
The BSE crisis which broke in March 1996 caused the reopening of the EU intervention system. Currently there are the equivalent of two million cattle being held in Europe's coldstores.
The Commissioner has warned that while it is possible under the current agreement to eventually sell this beef, a build-up of stocks after the next WTO agreement will mean that there will be no home for intervention stocks.
The farm organisations are concerned about the impact the reforms and a new WTO agreement will have on Irish agriculture. The main fear is that the Union will be unable to continue to deliver compensation for the fall in product price which will happen this time.
The Union is committed to reforming the CAP, getting a new world trade agreement and extending the Union into former eastern bloc countries all without increasing the agricultural budget.
Few in the farming community are prepared to accept the assurances that enlargement without increasing the budget will not bring about reductions in headage and other payments.
The emphasis in the reformed CAP is aimed at increasing the number of farmers involved in REPS and other environmentally sensitive schemes which will mean a decline in output from farms.
Additional money will be spent on rural development schemes but experience has shown that these are mainly agri-tourism and do not generally increase farm output. The Minister for Agriculture has announced the setting up of advisory bodies to investigate the impact of the reforms.