Spokesman for Farmers for NO, current Limerick IFA vice chairman,
David Thompson said Thursday 27/8/09:
'Lisbon transfers power from the Irish people to EU institutions.
'If Lisbon is passed Ireland's voting weight at the key EU Council of Ministers falls from 2 per cent to 0.8 percent.
How can the IFA think that loosing voting strength will help Ireland's negotiating strength going forward?
Where is its evidence a fall in voting strenght will help Irish negotiators?
Where is Padraig Walsh's evidence that 0.8 per cent voting weight puts us at the heart of Europe?
Farmers for NO advocate a NO vote to prevent further hyper-regulation from the EU.
While out of touch IFA leaders are acting as cheerleaders for EU measures the EU Nitrates Directive has placed a huge financial burden on Irish farmers who must comply by taking our bank loans and building slurry sheds.
On top of this Government ministers who advocate a Yes vote, and ask the people to trust them have trashed their contractual obligations to pay the farmers for the sheds they have built under the Farm Waste Management Scheme.
I ask the IFA, why should farmers being financially crippled by the Nitrates Directive vote for Lisbon and more hyper-regulation?
Why should farmers now trust the Irish government who have broken recent contracts and left thousands of farmers in hoc to the banks with huge debts?
Farmers for NO are appalled that IFA leaders who failed to consult local members in a ballot are colluding for a Yes vote with untrustworthy government ministers who have shafted Irish farmers and left them in debt.
Farmers have found to their cost that this government cannot be trusted.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president last June said, "No Lisbon [Treaty], no enlargement,". He added that "the Nice Treaty limited the EU to a membership of 27 states."
Like Sarkozy and Merkel, Farmers for No say that Lisbon is a prerequisite for enlargement. If we vote No to Lisbon, enlargement cannot take place. Turkey cannot enter the EU. Therefore Lisbon is a proxy vote on Turkish entry.
We have produced evidence, where is the IFA leaders evidence for their claims to the contrary?'
'Given that in a debate with me on LMFM on Tuesday morning, Meath IFA leader Eddie Downey said he would welcome Turkish accession talks, would welcome Turkish entry to the EU and did not want to deny anyone the benefits of Europe.
FF, FG and Labour are all on the record as supporting Turkish entry to the EU. Is it now IFA policy to support the EU entry of Turkey?
Does the IFA disagree or agree with former EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein who said, "After Turkish entry the EU will simply be unable to sustain its current agricultural and regional policy. Europe would implode."?
Farmer for NO holds that if the IFA supports the Lisbon and Turkish entry of Turkey to the EU it will cause the decimation of CAP payments and the destruction of Irish agriculture.
ends
Farmers for No spokesman, David Thompson is currently vice chairman of Limerick IFA and vice chairman of Farmers for No.
Background
Millward Brown study in 2008 found that 48 per cent of farmers voted No to Lisbon.
Farmers for No group has garnered many hundreds of pledges of support since its launch.
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