The President of the Irish Farmers' Association has warned that thousands of jobs in the agricultural sector will be lost if the Government does not take urgent action to reduce the cost of doing business in Ireland.
Padraig Walshe was speaking as he arrived for the latest round of partnership talks on a national economic recovery plan.
Mr Walshe said that more and more food processors are now moving raw material to the UK for further processing and then bringing it back to the Republic of Ireland for sale.
He said the cost of doing business in Ireland was now between 30% and 40% higher than that in the UK - and that it was worth the processors' while to pay the transport costs.
He said that the agriculture industry supports over 300,000 jobs.
However, he warned that those jobs could be lost if the right decisions were not taken urgently.
Among the issues that he said farmers wanted to see addressed were export credit insurance and supports for agri-business.
Head of the Conference of Religious of Ireland Fr Sean Healy said that it was vital that the vulnerable in society should be protected through the downturn.
He warned that public services in Ireland were being progressively reduced at a time when the numbers depending on them were rising.
He said that there was an increasing risk that if the overall tax-take were not increased, many Government services would end up being privatised.
