Vol. 517 No. 3
8 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will provide written guarantees to milk quota holders who do not have an option to lease their quotas because of family bereavements, ill health or other reasons; his views on whether written guarantees are necessary; whether many farming families are concerned about the future use of their milk quotas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9651/00]
The Agenda 2000 Agreement in relation to milk provided greater flexibility to member states in regard to the management of milk quotas and in particular to help active milk producers. Therefore, the changes I introduced by regulation with effect from 1 April will provide greater certainty to active producers, particularly those in the small scale categories. The regulations were drawn up following wide consultation with the different interests in the industry and cover an extensive range of issues relating to quota management. They have been accepted by the industry as progressive and as striking a fair balance.
One of the changes covers temporary leasing by persons no longer involved in milk production. It will be no longer possible for such quota holders to temporarily lease their milk quotas where the quotas have been temporarily leased for the preceding three years or longer. However, with effect from 1 April 2000, such quota holders will have the option to resume milk production in their own right during the 2000-01 milk quota year, to sell the milk quota into the 2000 milk quota restructuring scheme or to transfer land and quota by way of a family transaction.
Provision will also be made under the new restructuring scheme which will enable the heir of a person who sells all of his or her quota into the restructuring pool to have first priority access to an equivalent amount of quota in a subsequent scheme provided that sufficient quota is available.
I am, however, conscious of the need to cater for people who because of exceptional circumstances cannot resume milk production in the immediate term but intend that they or a successor will resume production within a definite period of time. I will outline in the near future the exceptional circumstances in which exemptions from the general rules may be considered, and the procedures to be followed.
I also draw the Deputy's attention to my decision to discontinue the imposition of clawback on land and quota transactions after 1 April 2000.
What form of written guarantee will the Department give a widow, none of whose children is in a position to start dairy farming for few years? What is the position regarding a person who due to ill health has to opt out of the system for more than three years? I have heard the Minister say on many occasions that such people will be given priority from the restructuring pool. Would the Minister like his livelihood to depend on how a person might interpret a priority in five or ten years' time? What the Minister has outlined does not reflect natural justice. Is he prepared to give a guarantee, signed by the Secretary General and himself, that when a farmer returns to work after a period of ill health or a son or daughter commences milk production on that farm five or ten years later that the quantity of milk quota the farmer sold into the restructuring scheme will be available, irrespective of whether sufficient quota is available? Is the Minister prepared to give that guarantee? It is a reasonable request.
The new regulations that will govern milk quota restructuring have been drawn up in consultation with the farming organisations. They are fair, balanced and equitable in relation to a number of specific categories, including the one the Deputy mentioned where a person is not in a position to continue milk production but may have a 13 or 17 year old heir who aspires to take over the running of the family farm in a few years' time. There will be provision for this.
In what way?
In other cases farmers who have health problems may wish to lease their quota for three or four years and then get back into milk production. Provision will be made under the new restructuring scheme which will enable the heir of a person who sells all his quota into the restructuring pool to have first priority.
Russian roulette for those families.
I will draw up the general rules in this matter in the next couple of weeks in consultation with the farming organisations. This will be done as tightly, fairly and with the greatest degree of sympathy possible in legal terms for the people to whom the Deputy referred.
I will put the question once more to the Minister because this is a burning question for all those who have a quota at present and for the many farmers who do not know what will happen in the future through ill health or bereavement. Is he prepared to put in writing a commitment that these people will be given priority and get back their milk quota?
I will draw up detailed rules in this matter in the next few weeks in consultation with the various interested parties. The Deputy can take it they will be drawn up in a fair and equitable way and will be couched in as tight legal terms as possible to ensure the heirs of those who for one reason or another cannot continue in milk production will be entitled to the equivalent amount.
