Vol. 570 No. 4
16 Mr. Coveney asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the amount of the ?7 million milk quota which has been distributed; the number of people who received quota; the number who were refused quota; the general reason for this; if there is an appeals mechanism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18912/03]
During the 2002-03 milk quota year I put in place a scheme for the allocation of the balance of the Agenda 2000 milk quota to certain categories of small and medium scale milk producers who satisfied certain defined criteria. A quantity of 32 million litres, 7 million gallons, was made available for allocation under this scheme and almost 27 million litres of this was allocated in November 2002. More than 6,400 applications were received and of these approximately 1,550 satisfied the conditions of the scheme and received a quota allocation.
An appeals procedure was set up in relation to this scheme and the remaining 5 million litres was available for allocation on appeal. The appeals were assessed by the milk quota appeals tribunal, which made recommendations to me in the matter. Almost 2,000 cases were considered and additional allocations were made in 178 cases, amounting to 4.3 million litres. All other cases did not, on the evidence presented, meet the conditions of the scheme.
