Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 September 2015
504. Deputy Pat Deering asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to meet all shareholders in the dairy industry to discuss the challenges facing milk producers as the milk price continues to drop. [30943/15]
View answerBoth I and officials of my Department retain ongoing contact with dairy sector stakeholders with a view to ensuring that all issues that need to be addressed are brought to the fore. More specifically, as the Deputy is aware, earlier in 2015 I announced my intention to establish a forum to address the key issues arising in the dairy sector in a post quota environment. I envisaged that this group would adopt a strategic perspective and that it would comprise relevant stakeholders, including farm organisations, processors and cooperatives, state and semi state bodies, banks, environmental and other stakeholders.
Such a forum is appropriate as a means of engagement on critical issues such as market developments, sustainability, animal health, milk quality and price volatility.
This forum will meet next week with the agenda envisaged to focus on some or all of the aforementioned issues. I look forward to continued cooperation to ensure that the Irish dairy sector can harness the opportunities and address the challenges that the future will bring in the context of quota free production.
