Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 February 2004
165 Mr. N. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food his views on the procedure that will have to be adopted and the criteria that will have to be met for farmers in milk production who have quotas; and the procedure that will be in place for compensation payments in relation to decoupling. [4329/04]
View answerThe dairy premium is designed to provide a level of compensation to milk producers for the reduction in support prices in the sector, the first part of which will be implemented on 1 July 2004.
The 2004 dairy premium is payable to milk producers based on the milk quota available on their holding on 31 March 2004. The dairy premium will be decoupled with effect from 2005 and the quota available on the holding on 31 March 2005 will determine the amount of dairy premium to be included in the single farm payment in 2005 and in subsequent years. The quota available on a holding on the 31 March includes quota owned or leased in, including that leased in under a temporary leasing scheme.
