Michael Creed
Ceist:13 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps he will take to alleviate hardship being encountered presently by small milk quota holders who have currently exceeded their quota.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Milk Quota System.
Within the limited degree of flexibility available to me under the Community regulations on the quota system I have already made a number of decisions designed to re-direct any quota available towards smallscale producers.
In 1987-88 I introduced a restructuring scheme restricted to producers below 50,000 gallons quota and of these the first priority category is confined to producers below 30,000 gallons quota. I have also assisted these producers by giving them priority under the schemes for the temporary leasing of quotas and the allocation of flexi milk.
In addition, I introduced a clawback system in December 1987 whereby a portion of the quota transferring with a lease is retained in a national reserve if the lessee's quota exceeds 50,000 gallons. The main objective of this scheme is to give small scale producers priority access to quotas becoming available for leasing with land.
I also arranged that out of the reserve pool of 11 million gallons which the Commission agreed to make available in response to my specific request at the 1989 price negotiations eight million gallons were allocated to small scale producers with quotas below 12,800 gallons.
It is evident, therefore, that since taking office in 1987 my concern under the quota system has been where possible to allocate additional quotas to small scale producers who would use them. I will continue to do my utmost — and I am sure my successor will too — in this regard but the main difficulty is that under a quota system additional quotas can only be made available to some producers by way of reductions in the quotas of other producers.
I could have anticipated much of what the Minister said in his reply which is cold comfort to many farmers who now have no income because they exceeded their milk quota for a number of months. I accept that there are structural problems but what progress has the Minister made, in particular with regard to the efforts of his Department to have the benefits of the family income supplement extended to the farming community? Furthermore, would he say what efforts he is taking to ensure that the 3 per cent quota cut, as proposed under the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, will not affect small quota holders? The Minister made a passing reference to the lease and sale of quotas. Would the Minister agree — because of the experience of solicitors and others practising in the legal field involved in the sale and transfer of quotas — that it is a legal minefield they anticipate will blow up in their faces at some stage in the future? Would he and his Department put in place specific guidelines governing such transactions?
In a sense I am gratified by the fact that Deputy Creed said he had anticipated my reply. I hope he will have anticipated it from the commitment I have shown over the past four and a half years to protect small quota holders particularly. One of the things that has kept me going in rather difficult times over the past four and a half years has been the number of letters and telephone calls I have received from those who felt they had not been protected as much previously. In relation to the legal requirements of the lease and sale of quotas, and of leasehold transfers with a view to protecting the small quota holders I imposed a clawback over a certain amount so that I would have a national pool for small quota people and young people coming into agriculture. Unfortunately lawyers — and I am a member of that profession myself, or at least used to be — found a way of advising those, whose needs were not nearly as acute as those I was endeavouring to help, of how to avoid the clawback. I regret that.
That is the Minister's fault.
The fact of the matter is that, had we a greater degree of community concern, a less selfish attitude on the part of some of the big farmers who are leasing quotas, some of the smaller men would be able to avail of the provisions I have put in place. We have not yet reached that idealistic stage but we are working towards it.
What about the family income supplement?
That is a matter that is being vigorously addressed in the context——
Perhaps the Minister's successor would be more favourably disposed to it.
——of the Common Agricultural Policy reform debate and the compensatory mechanisms that have been put in place. I am confident that we will have significant compensatory mechanisms by way of income.
So that small quota farmers will not be penalised.
Yes. It has been a fixed position of our negotiations — but I cannot anticipate the conclusion — that small quota holders would be relieved of any penalty that might be proposed in the course of those negotiations.
In the realisation that the Minister has such feeling for the small producers going out of business at present — this number of 5,000 — would he agree that a high percentage would be experiencing such difficulties because they have not sufficient income from their milk production? In view of the fact that the Minister acknowledges that the larger producers or their representatives have found a way to combat the proposal for leasing to small quota holders, what action does he propose taking to rectify that position so that it will have more impact on small quota holders?
I am glad to tell the Deputy that that is one of the matters I have referred to the milk quota review committee. The Deputy will know that we have a milk quota review committee on which small farmers and Macra, the young farmers, are well represented. I have requested their views as to how we can tighten up the existing arrangements in order to prevent what I might describe as that kind of distortion. I would hope that among the farming families of Ireland there would be greater awareness of the equity behind my proposal. I am quite satisfied that if they themselves do not volunteer to agree we will find a way of tightening up the arrangements to ensure that abuse will not occur.
Following on the Minister's reply to Deputy Creed, I am sure it is quite apparent to the Minister, as it is to everybody else, that he has shied away from the guarantee he gave small farmers recently. It is evident that any small farmer who exceeded the milk quota — even in the case of a farmer with a 1,000 gallon quota only — was penalised to the same extent as the larger farmer. Would the Minister explain to the House why those farmers who exceeded the milk quota received an average of 83 pence per gallon for their milk but are fined at the rate of 1.20 pence per gallon for their milk?
A Cheann Comhairle, this may be the last opportunity I will have to say anything about small farmers, or any farmers, as Minister in this Department. May I just inform the Deputy that I could never, never did and would never shy away from the problems particularly of small farmers. All of my young days were spent on small farms with all my relations. That is why they have been a priority with me, particularly over the past four and a half years. That is also why they recognise that what was not done for them in 1983 by way of the quota allocation was corrected to some extent within the past 12 months. I would never be able to do as much as I would wish but I have done a awful lot more than was done before.
The time for questions is exhausted.
Despite the fact that we are now engaging in the usual banter, I would like to thank Deputies opposite for their positive commitment at all times to agriculture, for the positive attitude they have adapted in the course of this and other Question Times. I hope that, together, we have advanced the cause somewhat. I look forward to engaging them in some other arena but I will miss a little, to say the least of it, the atmosphere at Question Time on agriculture. I look forward to co-operating with Members opposite in other areas of activity.
No hard feelings; we wish the Minister well in his new portfolio.
On behalf of the small farmers we all wish him well because no man did more for them.
Obviously the Taoiseach did not think so.