DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE:A GROUP calling itself Democratic Alliance for a No Vote, drawn mainly from former Irish Farmers' Association officers and rural representatives, yesterday claimed the IFA was being "led down the garden path" on the veto issue in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The group, chaired by James Reynolds, former Longford IFA county chairman, accused the Yes campaign of lying to farm families and rural Ireland on the loss of Ireland’s ability to veto a WTO agreement, which could hurt farmers.
Launching its campaign in Buswells Hotel, Dublin, Mr Reynolds was accompanied by David Thompson, former Limerick IFA chairman, and Gerry Murphy, former chairman of Waterford IFA. Mr Reynolds said a Yes vote would copperfasten a WTO deal drawn up by Peter Mandelson that would axe 50,000 jobs in farming and a further 50,000 in rural communities.
The group, he said, was urging farmers and rural people to vote No. They felt they could say the kind of things IFA president Pádraig Walshe could not because he had “so many irons in the fire”.
Mr Reynolds outlined what he said was the lack of a veto power, adding that the treaty drastically reduced the number of exceptions or grounds on which a member state could veto a trade accord.
Mr Thompson, who had criticised the price and lack of availability of the treaty document, noted the Taoiseach himself, Brian Cowen, had admitted he had not read it in full. He claimed “ignorance and fear” was being used to force through a vote that would have severe implications for farming and rural Ireland.
Asked why the group was pressuring the IFA to call for a No, the chairman said he was afraid the IFA would “sit on the fence or urge people not to vote at all” which would be the worst of all worlds. He claimed that at the last national executive meeting of the IFA, a motion had been put to ask the membership to vote No, and this had received a lot of support.
However, he added that IFA general secretary Michael Berkery and the president, Mr Walshe, had asked for more time and said it would be dealt with at another meeting next week.
“The IFA leadership is under a lot of pressure from Government and through the partnership process but it has done a major job in highlighting the problems facing rural Ireland if the Mandelson deal goes through,” said Mr Reynolds. He later added: “We are here to speak for our association colleagues who are unable to speak up.”
An IFA spokesman said last night he was unaware of any meeting of the IFA national executive next week on the treaty, and he questioned the ability of the group to report what had happened at IFA executive meetings as they had not been there.
However, in a statement last night the IFA said: “Undoubtedly there is a swing to a No vote amongst farmers, which is down to a lack of Government response on the Mandelson WTO cuts.”