10 Jun 2014, 18:17
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine was this afternoon told that the anticipated gains in the Irish dairy sector from the abolition of milk quotas required careful management.
10 June 2014
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney TD was before the Committee in advance of a key Council of Ministers meeting to be held later in the month. The Council will consider an important Commission report on the development of the market situation in the dairy sector.
Committee Chairman Andrew Doyle says: “We thank Minister Coveney for a detailed briefing on what is an important Agri-fish Council meeting for Ireland. The Minister said that some Member States are calling for the reintroduction of some form of supply controls in milk, moves which would be robustly opposed by Ireland. In terms of the broader opportunity presented by the abolition of quotas, we were told that Food Harvest targets of a 50 percent expansion in output could be achieved through a 20 percent expansion in the herd by greater efficiencies and improved management practices.
“However, a number of Committee members cautioned that the huge investments by farm families in switching to dairying may not bear fruit. While the Minister was confident that global increases in demand would absorb projected increases in production, he agreed that business plans for farmers transitioning to dairy production needed to be carefully formulated. The Minister was keen to avoid a repeat of the New Zealand experience where a large cohort of farmers might spend their working lives trying to repay bank loans as a result of overextending themselves.
“The Minister expressed his disappointment and surprise over the recent moves by the European Commission to fine Ireland about €180 million for failure to police agricultural payments. We were told that this would be robustly contested by Ireland, on the basis that a detailed review process of over 900,000 parcels of land had been undertaken by the Department of Agriculture in consultation with the Commission itself.”
Separately, the Committee engaged with Minister Coveney on the Report on Promoting Sustainable Rural Coastal and Island Communities. The Report was launched in Inis Oírr earlier this year by the sub-Committee on Fisheries.
Deputy Doyle continues: The report, which flowed from an extensive series of sub-Committee meetings, called for government policy to focus on the survival of rural coastal and island communities by promoting a diverse range of activities. There was a broad welcome among Committee Members that many of the recommendations from the report are being acted upon. In particular, the establishment of a National Inshore Fisheries Forum is to be warmly welcomed in that it will bring greater coherence and direction to those working directly in the inshore fishing fleet.”
ENDS
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