"Nice is not the problem facing Irish farmers," the deputy president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Ruaidhrí Deasy, told the Forum on Europe in Ennis last night.
In a direct appeal to rural communities for a Yes vote in the forthcoming referendum, Mr Deasy said that the agenda of the World Trade Organisation represented the greatest challenge to the future of Irish agriculture.
Fishermen were also urged to vote Yes by the chairman of the Government's National Strategy Review Group on the Common Fisheries Policy, Mr Pádraic White. And the Independent TD for Sligo-Leitrim, Ms Marian Harkin, said that she was personally voting Yes, as she had in the last referendum, because she believed it was a better option.
"Even if we vote No, expansion will still happen in a different framework and at a different pace, but Europe will get on with its business with or without us," Ms Harkin told the forum.
"If we put ourselves outside the loop, we will lose our influence in negotiations with the other 14 states."
Farmers had more to lose from a No than a Yes vote, Mr Deasy said. However, the Common Agricultural Policy proposals put forward by EU Agriculture and Fisheries Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, threatened to undermine the EU response to the WTO, he warned.
The EU's response in the WTO negotiations was crucial, Mr Deasy said, as the agenda aimed to "progressively erode the Common Agricultural Policy over a number of years, cut back food production in the EU and make room for more imports".
Mr White, a former head of the IDA and current chair of the Government's strategy review group on Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform, said that a vote in favour would be the best way to win European Union goodwill towards Ireland's needs during the current negotiations on the CFP.
However, Mr White said that it would be "helpful" if the Government was to restate its commitment to desired reform of the EU fisheries regime.
Such an approach would encourage all sections of the fishing industry to reach a "pro-Nice conclusion".
The Minister for the Marine, Mr Ahern, has already criticised as "over-simplistic" the current reform proposals.
Fishing industry organisations recently criticised a decision by Mr Fischler to postpone a visit to Ireland originally scheduled for yesterday.
