Dear Editor,
I heard Bertie Ahern mention on the radio last weekend that 'Farmers have the most to gain' from this Lisbon Treaty he is trying to sell and that we should get out and vote for it. Well he must think that we all just came down in the last shower. He is only trying to get this Treaty through to add onto his CV as his political career in Ireland has come to a sudden and disgraceful end and he will no doubt be looking for options on the European stage if he bags a 'yes' vote from the Irish.

Bertie Ahern has lied many times during the Mahon Tribunal and now it seems he just can't stop. How on earth can he say that this treaty, which weakens our voting strength within the EU, is 'good for farmers'? How can negotiating from a weaker position be 'good for farmers'?

The last ten plus years of Bertie Ahern has seen farming in Ireland get swallowed up with EU red tape and he never once stood up for us. They have lumped the subsidy system into a single payment so we wouldn't be confused. The farmer knows that this too will someday be wiped away with a swipe of a pen in Brussels if we let the politicians carry on.

I'll tell you this: the farmers understood the subsidy system and made it work. Most of us would use the money to put back into the farms to keep them going, not to fix up the girlfriend's house! And we worked for it!

It was not a system of brown envelopes for farmers. Does he want us to go on the dole? That is a subsidy too, but we produce nothing to get it! Maybe he wants us to sell our land so developers can make many more millions.

The loss of subsidies to continue farming may be good for pencil pushers in Brussels, but it is no good for the many farm and rural communities that find it difficult to make ends meet. Bertie is asking the farmers to support his 'yes' vote because he thinks we don't understand and we will just go along. Well Bertie, I'm wide to this Treaty and wide enough to question why you are looking for support from the one group of Irish people that you have absolutely no connection with and have let down, sold out and lied to for your whole political career. The Irish have a right to a Referendum that most other European countries don't have and I'm going to use it. We still have a say and I say 'NO'! If I were getting a bad deal at the farm gate I would load them up and go back home.

So don't come to the farmer with your cap in your hand asking for support this time; the game is up. The sheep are in the field, not at the polling station! I want to keep the farmers farming. Irish farmers can do well in Europe. This may not make the red tape types in Brussels very happy but we need to maintain a strong voice in Europe for farming as a way of life and keep the right to walk away from a deal that is not in our interest. Just like on Fair Day, you're coming to me with an offer, but I'm not selling. My vote is worth more than you are offering. Come to me with a fair deal or go away home! You won't cod a codder!

Yours,
Angry farmer

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