April 14th, 2009

Minister's quota statement is 'wrong and misleading' say ICMSA

The Deputy President of ICMSA has stated that the Minister's decision to proceed with the allocation of extra quota beggars belief, insults farmers and is both technically wrong and misleading.

Mr John O'Leary said that dairy farmers are in the worst income crisis in living memory due to collapsed milk prices arising from the persistent folly of the Minister and his EU Ministerial colleagues. Even those farmers who had tried to follow the bogus logic of the Minister's arguments were now being let down as they learned that they are not to get those quota increases that were promised as part of the so-called 'soft landing'.

"Having succeeded in delivering disastrously low milk prices, the Minister has now decided to tweak the quota increase system so that part will now be allocated on a lottery basis to new entrants. This is some policy", stated Mr. O'Leary.

“The Minister then goes on in a misleading and technically inaccurate way that confusingly presents the butter fat changes as if they were quota increases. To say that farmers - other than new entrants - will get an increase of 2.75 per cent quota increase as 'a just reward' for their investment is a joke in very bad taste to the thousands of farm families who have no income because of the so-called 'soft landing' recommended by the Health Check."

"The reality is that their quota will not be increased by 2.75 per cent, nor will their butter fat quota be adjusted. But in the event that they face a fine then their co-efficient will be reduced. The Minister's statement is both wrong and misleading on this point and it should be corrected", continued Mr O'Leary.

"Dairy farmers, particularly those individuals who were forced to buy quota at inflated prices as the Minister set up the Quota Exchange, can only look on in disbelief as their increased quota entitlements are now cut so that the Minister can play at social engineering as he tries to decide who will produce milk into the future. We reject totally the Minister's approach and would question whether it meets the requirements of objective criteria as set down in EU Milk Quota legislation. The Minister states that this is a pilot approach which simply begs this question: does this mean that a substantial part of the much lauded quota increases - which has come at such huge cost in terms of matching supply to demand and the savaging of our incomes - is to be diverted away from the current dairy farmers towards those who the Minister considers most deserving? Is there any dairy farmer left in Ireland who does not feel he or she has been lead up the garden path by the Minister?

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