Vol. 449 No. 3
10 Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if he will ensure that under the new allocations from the national reserve of suckler cow quota, all farmers whose existing quota is less than ten cows will automatically be granted extra quota as long as they had the numbers of cattle on hand for which they were applying for quota and that their total income was less than the average industrial wage. [3109/95]
The Government agreed, in the context of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work to set up a quota review group to make recommendations to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry on the criteria to be used in the allocation of any left-over quota after the initial distribution of the suckler cow premium reserve and of annual additions to the reserve. The quota review group is broadly representative of the main farming organisations together with officials from Teagasc, ICOS and my Department. The review group met for the first time recently and I am at present considering their recommendations as to the priority categories to whom quota from the 1994 suckler cow reserve should be distributed. I will shortly be announcing the priority categories and I can assure the Deputy that the category of producer which he has in mind will be taken into consideration in my decision on the priority categories.
