Michael Creed
Ceist:332 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will outline the regulations surrounding allocation of milk quotas to persons with diseased herds in the 1983 base year.
Written Answers. - Milk Quotas Allocation.
Under Article 3.3 of Council Regulation No. 857/84, member states were obliged to establish a national reserve to cater for producers whose milk deliveries during the quota reference year (1983 in Ireland's case) were affected by animal disease or certain other exceptional factors.
A national reserve for this purpose was established in Ireland in November 1984 when Exchequer funds of £5 million were made available to purchase seven million gallons for re-allocation to producers who qualified under the scheme. The re-allocation of the entire seven million gallons available took place in early 1985.
Michael Creed
Ceist:333 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the circumstances, if any, which applied where people were allocated milk quotas though they had not produced milk in 1983.
Michael Creed
Ceist:334 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will outline the regulations governing allocations of milk quotas as introduced in 1984.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 333 and 334 together.
The basic Community Regulations governing the milk quota system are Council Regulations Nos. 856/84 and 857/84 together with the implementing Commission Regulation No. 1546/88. The national legislation is set down in S.I. No. 416 of 1985 as amended by S.I. Nos. 51 and 143 of 1987 and No. 49 of 1989.
Quotas were allocated by my Department to co-operatives and dairies on the basis of the quantity of milk deliveries made to them in the calendar year 1983. Producers were in turn allocated quotas on the basis of the quantity of milk supplied by them during 1983. Producers who did not deliver milk in 1983 would therefore not have been entitled to a basic quota unless they purchased or leased land from which milk was delivered in 1983 or qualified for an allocation from one of the national reserves which were set up for certain special category producers e.g., producers with animal disease problems, new entrants and participants in Community schemes for the non-marketing of milk.
Michael Creed
Ceist:335 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will outline the number of court proceedings which the Department have been involved in regarding the issue of milk quotas; the basis on which these cases were presented; the outcome of all these cases to date; and the cases, if any, which are pending.
Court hearings have taken place in seven such cases to date. These cases involved applications for additional quota allocations. Verdicts in favour of my Department have been granted in all of the cases heard to-date. However, two have been referred on appeal to the European Court of Justice and it is expected that the judgments in those cases will not be announced for some months yet.
I understand that court proceedings are pending in approximately 14 other cases. A number of these relate to the collection of outstanding super levy liabilities.