The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, sharply criticised the attitude of some farm leaders to the Nice referendum.

Mr Walsh said he found it incomprehensible that some, while advocating a Yes vote, were, at the same time, threatening that farmers might vote No unless they received assistance from the Government.

"In so doing, they run the danger of giving a confused message to their members, and, therefore, of endangering their members' own interests.

"Certainly, farmers have experienced both market and weather difficulties this year which are adversely affecting incomes.

"But there is no connection between these difficulties and the Nice Treaty and to make such a connection, however tenuous, carries enormous risks."

The Minister for Defence insisted that the Nice Treaty would not endanger Ireland's traditional policy of neutrality. Mr Smith said the Seville European Council declarations clarified that.

"It is now time to move on to the real issues at stake in the ratification of the Nice Treaty: enlargement and maintaining Ireland's position in Europe, which is crucial to our social and economic well-being."

He said the proposed amendment, if approved by the people, would also have the effect of preventing the State from adopting a decision taken by the European Council on the establishment of a common defence where it would include the State.

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said the Green Party was calling for the Nice Treaty to be opposed again, despite the acknowledgement by the European Green movement that speeding up the enlargement "is particularly important".

The Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, said that in 1972 Ireland landed just 85,500 tonnes of fish.

Today, it was landing in the region of 320,600 tonnes, an increase of 235 tonnes, or 275 per cent, because of access to the free-market due to the EU.

In his maiden speech, Mr Noel Grealish (PD, Galway West) said the accession countries mirrored the Ireland of the late 1950s, when it was acknowledged that the State's protection of the economy had failed miserably.

The courageous decision was made then to change policy, create the IDA and pave the way for foreign investment and the success the Republic enjoyed today.

Irish people would never have it on their conscience that they denied these countries the opportunities the EU offered them.