I welcome Deputy Dukes as spokesman on agriculture and wish him a pleasant stay in the job. I welcome also my constituency colleague, Deputy Sheehan, and Deputy Stanton. I cannot go to a Teagasc meeting or any such cosy occasion in west Cork without being harassed by Deputy Sheehan regarding disadvantaged areas and other agricultural matters.
I do not accept that there was any expropriation of milk quotas under the restructuring scheme. The main objectives of the changes in the management of milk quotas are as follows: (i) to provide greater access to quota for small and medium sized producers at a reasonable cost and on a permanent basis; (ii) to replace the uncertainty that was a feature of the existing regime with a system which generated greater certainty and permanency in relation to quota transfers; (iii) to ensure the cost of milk quota did not become a constant drain on the profits from milk production and (iv) to maintain milk production within regions, particularly disadvantaged regions.
Under the new milk quota regulations, it is no longer possible for quota holders to temporarily lease their milk quota where all the quota has been temporarily leased for the preceding three milk quota years, that is, 1997 to 1999, inclusive. However, such quota holders have a number of other options as follows: (i) transfer the milk quota with land to a family member; (ii) sell the milk quota into the restructuring scheme and (iii) resume milk production. Where a person is no longer entitled to temporarily lease his or her milk quota in accordance with the regulations, and where the option outlined is availed of, that person's son or daughter will have first priority, subject to certain conditions, to purchase up to an equivalent amount of milk quota under a subsequent milk quota restructuring scheme operated by the same milk purchaser.
I also made provision that in certain exceptional circumstances a person may apply in writing for a declaration granting approval to make a temporary transfer of his or her quota for one further milk quota year. Among the circumstances taken into account were whether the producer was compelled by reasons of personal illness or animal disease to lease the quota and also whether there was an indication that the producer or a successor would resume milk production. A number of applications for such declarations were received in my Department and each one was judged on its merits. In those circumstances, it can clearly be seen that there was no expropriation of milk quotas under the restructuring scheme.
The changes I introduced to the management of the quota system are in the interests of the industry as a whole and were made following wide consultation with the industry, including the widely representative milk quota review group. They have been welcomed across the sector.
