Vol. 389 No. 2
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if there is any positive discrimination in favour of small producers or young producers in the allocation or distribution of milk quota; if he will give details of any relevant regulations, and when they were introduced.
38.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the arrangements made at the introduction of the milk quota system to include special provisions for smallholders with inadequate quota and first time entrants; if these arrangements have proved adequate; and if not, the opportunities which are open to these farmers.
81.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties being experienced by milk producers with small quotas; and if he has any proposals to improve their situation.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 17, 38 and 81 together.
I have from the beginning of my term of office been very concerned about the quota difficulties of such farmers.
The initial arrangements of our national quota in 1984 have not, unfortunately, been adequate to deal with the difficulties faced by these producers. For that reason I secured agreement from the Council of Ministers in 1987 to introduce a restructuring scheme giving special priority for the purchase of quota, without land, to small scale producers. Under the scheme introduced in September 1987, I provided that priority for the purchase of quotas is to be accorded to small scale milk producers. The scheme is in fact restricted to producers with quotas under 50,000 gallons and of these the first priority category is confined to producers with quotas of less than 30,000 gallons.
I have also sought to help some producers by giving them priority under the scheme for temporary leasing of quotas introduced in 1988-89 and also in that year I further amended the guidelines on flexi-milk in their favour.
Further more, I introduced in December 1987 a clawback system under which a percentage of quota transferring with a lease of land will be retained in a national reserve, if the lessee's total quota exceeds 50,000 gallons. This is designed partly to add quota to the national reserve for distribution to small scale and young farmers and, more importantly in the way the scheme works, to give producers priority access to quotas becoming available for leasing with land.
A number of these changes were introduced following recommendations from the group, representing all interests in the industry, which I set up to review the quota arrangements generally. I am now asking that group to meet again to see whether there are other ways in which the national reserve could be topped up.
Following repeated requests from some other colleagues and myself in the recent prices negotiations, an adjustment of the milk co-responsibility levy system was agreed which was not originally proposed by the Commission. In the disadvantaged areas, the levy will be reduced to zero for all producers while in other areas a levy of 1 per cent will apply to those producing under 12,800 gallons and 1.5 per cent for other producers. This adjustment will be very helpful to small producers and is worth about £10 million to Irish producers in a full year.
There was agreement that this would be the first stage in a process leading to the dismantlement of the levy and that there would be a further stage in the price package next year.
In response to pressure from my French and German colleagues and myself to create an additional quota reserve to provide quotas for development and other priority farmers, the Commission has undertaken to prepare a report on the market situation and the conditions affecting such categories before 31 July and to submit any appropriate proposals to the Council.
I would hope that the decisions to be taken on foot of this report will be another step in the action taken to meet the difficulties of small scale and other producers with special quota difficulties.
For my part I will be pressing very hard to ensure that special action is taken as a result of the Commission report promised as part of last week's price settlement.
