Vol. 352 No. 8
asked the Minister for Agriculture the action he intends to take in response to the European Commission's proposals to restrict aids for dairy investment; if he has pointed out to our EEC partners that milk output is six and a half times more important to the Irish economy than in the overall economies of the Member States; and the representations he has made in response to this proposed discriminatory measure.
686.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he considers that the suspension of national and community aids for modernisation in the milk sector, taken as a measure to limit milk surpluses, will have an unfair and a disastrously adverse effect on the Irish economy as it will serve to limit output and therefore job potential.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 685 and 686 together.
The Commission's amended proposals for structural reform, which are at present under discussion in Brussels, would allow investment aid to be given for dairy rationalisation within the limits of each farmer's milk production quota under the measures for regulating the milk market and within the present restrictions on investment aid viz. 40 to 60 cows for development farmers and 40 cows for other farmers. If these arrangements, which are more liberal than those envisaged by the Commission in its original proposal on structural reform, are adopted, I am satisfied that they would allow Irish farmers to receive investment aid for the development of their dairy enterprises up to the levels of production permitted under the milk quota system.
