Vol. 519 No. 4
68 Mr. B. Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the number of small and medium sized farmers who will benefit this year from the allocation of the increased milk quota which Ireland negotiated in the Agenda 2000 agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13972/00]
Under the agreement on Agenda 2000 I secured an additional 150,000 tonnes, 32 million gallons approximately, of milk quota for Ireland and 20.5 million gallons of this is available with effect from 1 April 2000. Some 15 million gallons of this additional quota will be allocated to active milk producers with quotas of less than 55,000 gallons. Approximately 21,600 active milk producers will benefit from this allocation and this means that almost 80% of producers with a milk quota of less than 55,000 gallons are eligible.
A further five million gallons will be allocated to younger dairy farmers with quota of less than 35,000 gallons who satisfy certain conditions. My Department has received approximately 3,500 applications under this scheme. These applications are being examined in my Department at present with a view to establishing eligibility and, therefore, it is not possible at this stage to say how many of these will be eligible for an allocation.
