The Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, has voiced her objections to proposals by the European Commission to transfer money from Single Farm Payments into Rural Development.
Speaking during a meeting of agriculture ministers in Brussels, Ms Coughlan said Irish farmers needed a degree of policy stability following the CAP reforms of 2003, which they had already budgeted for.
The meeting was the first since the Commission launched its Health Check of the Common Agriculture Policy.
Last week, the IFA claimed that a proposal to increase what is known as modulation - transferring money from Single Farm Payments into Rural Development - would cost Irish farmers €100m, a figure disputed by farm Commissioner Marianne Fischer Boel.
Brussels wants to increase the amount transferred from 5% to 13%. Ms Coughlan said that a huge amount of Irish money had already been invested in Rural Development and that she was opposed to any compulsory modulation.
The Minister would not be drawn on controversial plans to cap the biggest hand-outs to farmers saying that the average Single Farm Payment to farmers was €5,000.
London and Berlin have led opposition to the cap proposal, under which farmers who received hand-outs of over €100,000 would see their subsidies reduced.
It would, in particular, hit aristocratic landowners in Britain and former communist cooperatives in eastern Germany.
