EU finance ministers should postpone the introduction of the single European currency when they meet informally in the Netherlands this weekend, the ICMSA president has said.

Mr Frank Allen said EMU should not go ahead until all member-states were ready to join.

The criteria for joining the single currency were being fudged in order to "pander to influential states like Germany" which were failing to meet the strict guidelines, he said.

"The Irish Government, on the other hand, is behaving like a loyal lapdog in sticking rigidly by these guidelines - even if it means adopting a currency policy which is ruining the livelihoods of farmers and the exporting sector."

The Government had adopted a "masochistic attitude" in abiding rigidly to the qualification rules which would be "dextrously dodged" by more influential member states, Mr Allen said.

"The Government's blind enthusiasm to be among the first countries to join the single currency is causing deep anger among Irish beef and dairy farmers, whose incomes are being savaged by low milk and beef prices."

The ICMSA president said it was his view that the single currency should only go ahead when all member-states were ready to join together. In the US, the dollar was the currency in all states. Likewise the euro should be the currency in all EU member-states from day one of its introduction.

Mr Allen said it would be foolish to ignore the major problems that could arise if Ireland joined EMU but Britain did not. With 40 per cent of food and drink exports going to Britain, Ireland could not afford to ignore the huge risks to employment in this sector, and the increased vulnerability of retail food sector to takeovers by British companies.

"At present, the Irish government is suffering from tunnel vision as regards the single currency," Mr Allen said. "It is high time our politicians took a break from their gallop towards EMU and got involved in addressing the reservations of the growing numbers of single currency sceptics."