asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will state the present and foreseeable future effect on butter production of the decision of the recent meeting of Ministers of Agriculture in Brussels which has resulted in the Commission's deciding to introduce higher export rebates on butter and the abolition of the export tax on skimmed milk powder.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Butter Production.
72.
The measures referred to are part of the Community's ordinary market operation whereby external trade arrangements for dairy products are adjusted from time to time in the light of the stock situation and anticipated Community requirements. I do not regard the measures in question as likely to have any significant effect on butter production either in the present member States or in the enlarged Community which will exist in 1973.
73.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries when he received details of the EEC Commission proposal to reduce butter stocks; if he has presented comments thereon to the Community; and the dates on which Ireland was consulted in relation to these measures.
The decision on measures to reduce butter stocks was taken by the Council of Ministers on 5th June and the regulation increasing the export refund on butter was published in the Official Journal of the Communities on 6th June. The consultation arrangements do not apply to short term measures of this sort, which are applicable only to the existing Community. Indeed, for some products, changes in the Community rates of export refund or import levy can take place almost daily.