Vol. 434 No. 4
145 Mr. O'Leary asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the criteria laid down for the distribution of the national milk quota reserve; if a large percentage of the reserve is allocated to farmers with less than 30,000 gallons; and the amount that is in the national reserve at present.
It is my intention to give overall priority to small scale producers in the distribution of both the additional 6.6 million gallons of quota allocated to Ireland last May and the additional quota bought into the national reserve using the moneys also allocated to Ireland for that purpose. I have been in discussion with the Commission on the definition of small scale producers and the detailed aspects of the criteria to be applied to the distribution of quota and hope to publish them very shortly.
