FARM ORGANISATIONS are seeking meetings with Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, to discuss EU proposals on the dairy industry that would allow member states aid dairy farmers.
The Dairy Market Situation report, drawn up by EU experts, suggested loans or state aid up to €15,000 could be given to farmers with liquidity problems.
It also pledged to continue using market supports such as export refunds for dairy products and said it would use all its powers to stop anti-competitive measures in the dairy sector.
The proposals, which will be discussed at the next farm ministers meeting in September, have had a mixed reaction from farming and political sources, and Mr Smith has yet to comment on it.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), which opposed the EU’s recent decision to allow farmers produce more milk under the quota scheme, was scathing on the proposals.
Its president, Jackie Cahill, called on those who support a supply-management system to state that publicly and demand a change in policy from the Department of Agriculture while there was still time to rescue our own and Europe’s dairy sector.
The EU report “amounts to no more than an abdication of responsibility for a disaster that was entirely of their own making”, he said.
Mr Cahill rejected the proposal that money should be used to allow farmers retire from dairying as “shambolic”. While Macra na Feirme welcomed the commitment to continue market supports, its president, Michael Gowing, opposed a levy on over-production to fund retirement as it would devalue the quota.