Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan says she is taking the recent threat by farmers to vote No on the Lisbon Treaty seriously.
Farmers are say they will reject the treaty over what they say is a huge threat to farming in the World Trade negotiations.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's This Week programme, Mary Coughlan said the Lisbon Treaty and the World Trade talks are two different things.
However, she said she was working to ensure that the outcome of the World Trade negotiations is balanced, with the appropriate protections for Irish farmers and the agri-food sector.
Ms Coughlan said she felt that the majority of people in Ireland know that voting yes in the Lisbon Treaty would be hugely important for Ireland.
Responding to Ms Coughlan's comments, IFA President Padraig Walshe said he had no disagreement with her stark assessment of the damage to Ireland's farm and food industry posed by WTO negotiations.
McGuinness concerned at farmers' anger
Meanwhile Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness has said she is concerned about the mounting anger among farmers ahead of the Lisbon Treaty referendum on 12 June.
She urged the Government to come out very strongly and say it will use its veto on World Trade Talks. This would allow the Government to disentangle the Lisbon Treaty debate from the talks she told RTÉ's The Week In Politics programme.
But Education Minister, Mary Hanafin said the Government knows that farmers have genuine concerns about what is being proposed at the talks, but she insisted it was too early to use our veto.
She said it was about getting an agreement that was balanced both within agriculture and between trade and agriculture.
