May 6th, 2009

Cahill says possible €64 million available for dairy farmers

ICMSA President, Jackie Cahill, has urged Minister Smith to lay claim to a possible fund of €64 million which could be paid to dairy farmers over the next twelve months. Mr Cahill said the €64 million is a combination of 3 different pools that will shortly become available and he confirmed that he had raised the necessity of securing these funds with Minister Smith.

“The situation on dairy farmers’ income is now so desperate that we just have to maximise the budgets wherever possible and we anticipate that this money will become available over the next 12 months”, said the ICMSA leader.

“Up to €30 million of new funding is likely to become available later this year for payment from unused EU funding. This is specifically marked for dairy and rural broadband but given the desperate pressure on dairy income it is clear where the priorities must rest for the distribution of this money. The need for rural broadband – desperate as that may be - is simply not as pressing as the need to support dairy incomes at present. The German Government has already earmarked this funding for dairy farmers.”

ICMSA say that next year some €17 million will be available from the modulation funds, which is farmers’ own money and farmers should make no apologies for saying that this money should also be diverted to dairy farmers. The third pool of money is the additional unused Irish CAP funding which will be available in 2010. Mr. Cahill said that up to €7 million of that has been earmarked for the sheep sector in 2009 leaving up to €17 million available for dairy farmers from the total of €24 million that can be allocated in 2010.

“Taking the three sources of monies into account, I estimate that up to €64 million could be available and can be paid out to dairy farmers in the form of a grassland premium, or a permanent pasture premium, or a grazing premium, within existing EU legislation passed by the Farm Council of Ministers last January. From our discussions with the Department, I believe that these conditions could be readily met and that, effectively, the monies could be paid out pro rata to the actual milk quota held by farmers as at 1 April 2009. This would give a potential pay-out to farmers over the next 12 months of 1.14 cent per litre. This is real money and I believe that the Minister should make a statement that, in principle, he intends to use the 3 funds we have identified to give a payment to dairy farmers. I now believe that the Minister should now be making preparations to pay out this money at the first available opportunity in either one sum or staged as the monies become available.

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