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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 17 Nov 1988

Vol. 384 No. 4

Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Milk Quotas.

10.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will make a statement on the implications for this country of the recent European judgment in the Mulder case.

21.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will give details of the number of dairy farmers who, due to disease in their herd, were unable to participate in the milk quota scheme established under the EC milk levy scheme; if their quotas were passed on to other agencies; and if he will make a statement on the position of these farmers following the judgment on the Mulder case on 28 April.

29.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he has satisfied himself that the allocation for Ireland from the extra milk quota created as a result of the Mulder case will be sufficient to meet the legitimate Irish claims.

46.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the line he pursued at the Council of Ministers meeting on 14 and 15 November 1988 to ensure that all our 3,200 farmers affected by the Mulder judgment will have their quotas (reference quantities) restored to them unconditionally.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10, 21, 29 and Priority Question No. 46 together.

The package of proposals submitted by the EC Commission, in order to comply with the ruling of the European Court of Justice in the Mulder case, was examined by the Council of Agricultural Ministers at their meeting on 14-15 November 1988. However, no decision was made in the matter.

In these negotiations I have been seeking to achieve the best possible result for those Irish producers who participated in the non-marketing schemes and who satisfy the criteria to be laid down by the Council. As the outcome of the negotiations will not be known until next month at the earliest, it is not possible to say at this stage whether the extra milk quota to be allocated will be sufficient to meet in full claims from eligible Irish producers.

It is not possible to indicate the number of farmers who participated in the non-marketing schemes because of animal disease problems.

I appreciate that the Minister, at the Council of Ministers, will be doing his best to represent the farmers in this terrible predicament. Will he give an indication to the House of the amount of additional projected quotas necessary for the farmers involved in this country? As I understand it, the balance, other than the increase in reserves by the Commission to 500,000 tonnes, must be found within the overall guaranteed quantities. Will the Minister give any indication to those farmers whom he met from my own county in recent weeks that he will be able to bring about a resolution of their nightmare, because most of them do not have an income at present?

I certainly hope so. I will not say that I will be able to bring it about but I hope the Council of Ministers will be able to decide this matter at the next meeting in December because it is extremely urgent. I am glad that the Vice-President of the Commission shares that view. It will not be possible to indicate exactly how much will be available for each qualified applicant until we know how many there are. To illustrate the point, 3,000 people in Ireland alone retired in the relevant period under the milk cessation scheme and, to date, 1,500 have applied. If that is the pattern elsewhere it would not be possible to define the number of eligible people until we have the applications in full. There has been one positive development; the original Commission proposal which I rejected, that only those who applied before the end of July this year would be eligible, will not now be proceeded with. I hope there will be an opportunity for those people to apply within a reasonable period of the regulations being adopted.

I thank the Minister for his response. I am sure he is doing his best to bring these discussions to a conclusion as soon as possible in view of the urgency of many of the cases. Will he confirm that he supports the case of the Irish applicants to have their full quotas restored to them without restriction?

We want to have an adequate Community reserve which will not in any way impinge on the quota already existing in Ireland. I want to ensure that the scheme adopted will mean that the producer in each country will get either the full amount or the proportionate share of the full amount because, if you were to have a breakdown by country it would probably mean that each producer here would get a smaller proportion than his counterpart in some other countries. I am pretty confident there will be an even-handed approach which will adequately meet our needs.

Does the Minister accept in law that applicants are entitled to have their full quota restored to them? I accept that the Minister will have a battle on his hands but I hope he will not rest until he gets the response that will satisfy him. Surely the result of the Mulder judgment is that they are entitled by law to have the entire quota returned to them without restriction, or only with restrictions that apply to other dairy farmers now?

I might wear my other hat from time to time but I will not wear a legal hat here now and the Deputy will appreciate that I could not do so. I will be arguing the case strenuously on the basis the Deputy suggested.

I want to bring in Deputy Stagg and Deputy McCoy and to deal with some other questions.

Deputy Doyle rose.

I do not think the lady should be allowed to hog all the time.

Deputy Doyle, a final supplementary.

Will the Minister assure the Irish applicants affected by the Mulder judgment that those who are at the moment supplying milk to their creameries since their various cessation contracts ended will be paid in arrears when the Mulder case has been cleared up? In other words, will they be paid from the date they recommenced supplying?

That is the case that I am making in terms that if they are supplying now they obviously qualify and they should be dealt with as if they had got their quota at the time they applied. I can assure the Deputy that that is the case I am making but I cannot assure her of anything else until the final regulation is put in place.

What happened the quotas that should have been available to the people who are now without them? Have they been assigned elsewhere and, if so, can they not be recovered from somebody who would now seem to have more than their proper quota?

That was not the case and there were no quotas floating around. I wish there were. As I have mentioned in the last reply to Deputy Doyle, the quotas that should have been available and were not should be given retrospective effect so that if people were paying super-levy in the interim period they would be compensated for that.

First, I would like to ask the Minister, in relation to the 3,000 people who would have qualified under the legal ruling and his assertion that approximately 1,500 have applied, is it not true to say that the Department of Agriculture and Food have records of the names and addresses of those 3,000 people and that it should be the duty of that Department to notify these people of their rights? After all an increase in the quota is a national asset. I would also like to ask the Minister, in the event of a decision being arrived at next month, if the extra quota allocated would be added on to the entire Irish quota for the milk year 1 April 1988 to 1 April 1989? It would be very important in the context of the super-levy problem which many people are facing at present.

I do not want to be too complex or lengthy in regard to this matter. First, in relation to the Department notifying the other 1,500 people, there is no guarantee that each of those people would qualify. The figure of 3,000 represents the number of people who availed of the cessation schemes at the time. That is not to say that all the 3,000 here or equivalent numbers elsewhere will qualify under the terms of the regulation which will now pursue because some will have got out of milk production and will have no intention of getting back into it.

How does the Minister know that?

When the criteria are fixed——

There should be no restrictions.

Will the Minister——

I thought we were going on to another question but you can ask your question, Deputy Spring.

I will be very brief. In my usual courteous manner — I assumed that you would be going around once or twice — I waited until Deputy Doyle had asked five or six questions.

I have gone around many times today.

I would like to ask the Minister for some guidance. In response to Deputy Doyle's fifth or sixth supplementary question, he said he was making the case on the basis that all of those who went out of milk production and who are qualified applicants would get back their full quotas. Will it now be in order for us as public representatives to instruct the many people who have been contacting us to recommence supplying to their local dairies?

What I said is that they would be compensated on the basis of levies they paid which otherwise would not have been paid. There are a whole series of eligibility criteria that we are arguing at present and I hope the ones I am putting forward will be adopted. If you would like to see everybody throughout the European Community who availed of milk cessation schemes become automatically entitled to a quota then you had better accept that there will be much less available for those who are really interested in getting back into milk production. That is the reason I have said all along the line that there will be no windfall profits in this because if there is it will be at the expense of genuine bona fide suppliers.

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