Vol. 576 No. 2
93 Mr. O'Dowd asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of farmers who received milk quota under the milk rights group in December 2002 from the 7.2 million gallon allocation; the numbers by county; if this milk comes under the remit of the Fischler proposals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29236/03]
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. The remaining 5 million litres was allocated in June 2003, following an appeals procedure. In total, over 6,400 applications were received and of these 1,744 satisfied the conditions of the scheme and received a quota allocation. I am forwarding a schedule of the breakdown by county, based on applicants herd numbers, to the Deputy.
Under the mid-term review agreement, the total milk quota on which the dairy premium may be paid is limited to the level of the national quota for the year 1999-2000. No premium is payable in respect of quantities in addition to that, such as those allocated to Ireland under Agenda 2000.
Question No. 94 answered with Question No. 65.
