Vol. 419 No. 6
265 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will outline the steps, if any, he intends to take to protect small milk producers who wish to lease quotas, in view of his recent decision to abolish the claw-back scheme.
I recently announced details of a scheme for the temporary leasing of milk quotas at co-operative/dairy level. Under this scheme small producers receive first priority in the allocation of any quota which becomes available. By raising the amount of quota which can be leased by a supplier from last year's level of 70 per cent to 99 per cent, the uptake under the scheme will be greater in the current year and accordingly more quota will be available for allocation to small producers.
Small producers will, of course, continue to receive priority under the various other national arrangements which are in place and I will also be mindful of their quota position in forthcoming negotiations at the Council of Ministers on the future of the quota system.
