The radical new reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy will make it more relevant and acceptable to the modern EU, the former commissioner for agriculture, Mr Ray MacSharry, said last night.
Delivering the inaugural Michael Dillon Memorial Lecture, Mr MacSharry, a former government minister, said the new agreement completed the transition from price support to income supports for Irish agriculture.
"This is as radical a step as has occurred since the inception of the CAP, which is now more relevant and acceptable to modern society. Farmers and the agri-food industry can reorientate to the market to enhance their returns," he said.
"I believe the sector can look forward with confidence, secure in the knowledge that we can supply quality products on a competitive basis," he told the Guild of Agricultural Journalists, which had organised the lecture in memory of the broadcaster and writer who was the voice of Irish farming for 40 years until his death, aged 70, in 1992.
"We joined the Community on the basis that we would have access to the markets of Europe. Cushioned by direct income supports we can now get on with the job," Mr MacSharry said.
"While the CAP will no doubt continue to evolve, and in particular the rural development agenda will be developed further, I believe we have a more secure CAP and certainty into the next decade," he said.
Mr Hugh Friel, managing director of Kerry Group, sponsor of the lecture, said Michael Dillon, who for many years wrote a daily column in The Irish Times on farming, was the definitive voice of farming and livestock production for farmers throughout Ireland.