Press Release: Minister Smith says protection of direct payments to farmers is an ‘absolute priority’

The Irish Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith, on 22 July 2008, commented on the issue of the 'green box', which protects almost €2 billion of annual payments to Irish farmers and said he would not accept any threat to these payments which account for 75 per cent of Irish farmers' income. The Minister was also lobbying hard on the issue of protecting key EU markets from the effects of tariff reductions and increased imports, particularly with reference to beef.