Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I welcome all the co-operation that is under way in respect of animal and plant health and so on, I wish to focus on issues I believe to be worthy of urgent and important consideration. The first issue relates to inshore fisheries, about which I have two simple questions. The briefing document members received indicated there is an agreement in place that fishermen from south of the Border can fish within the North's six-mile limit for all species. The Minister might confirm whether this means mackerel and anything one may find. Second, is there a limit to the size of the boat involved within the aforementioned six-mile limit or are there requirements in respect of the type of licence those concerned must have from the authorities here? In other words can someone with a potting licence from down here then fish for non-potting species in the North's waters? I also seek information regarding drift net or draft net fishing for salmon in rivers in the North. Is either method permitted in the North and, if so, under what conditions? Is there a ban in place on drift netting in the North? It would be useful for members to be apprised of this because they are seeking to ascertain what are the practices in other jurisdictions and the nearest one to us is the North of Ireland.

On the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, now the Minister has the menu, I would be interested in hearing her thoughts on the various options available to farmers, whether she intends to opt for convergence or a flat rate and whether she intends to place limits on what any single farmer can get. In general, does she intend to set minimum staffing levels to ensure activity? In other words, I refer to all the complicated rules in respect of what being an active farmer might mean. A particular issue in this regard relates to farmers on commonage. As the new CAP requires that all farmers are active on all of their land, has thought been given or have discussions taken place on how that might operate in respect of commonage? In many cases, people were claiming for all their land but were not farming the commonage as they were leaving it to someone else in an arrangement that suited both sides. Consequently, do the two jurisdictions have a common cause on the entire issue of commonage and the CAP? I also would be interested in hearing the general approach the Minister is taking to the CAP and the extent to which a CAP policy can be devised in the North of Ireland that would differ from the CAP policy in Britain. Am I correct in thinking that Northern Ireland is treated as a region or in other words, there is regional policy with regard to the British CAP and the North is treated as a region, as is Scotland?

Moving on to the milk issue, many farmers in the South are complaining that they are being asked to produce milk for dairies at a price that is not viable. On examining this issue, the joint committee found there is no question but that farmers are getting a smaller share of the price of milk in the shop than was the case in 1995. Moreover, on considering the issue in general, one difficulty being faced by the industry appeared to relate to the allegation that some supermarkets were buying milk from the North or from Northern farmers, in that some of it was being processed in the South but originated in the North, and that this milk was coming at a lower price. When I then asked whether production costs were lower in the North, the answer I seemed to get was not particularly but there had been a very big increase in milk production in the North and people were on a treadmill and were obliged to keep selling. It was not necessarily that it was very profitable but that what would not be profitable to do down here was profitable in the North. It appears from the statistics given to the joint committee in respect of liquid milk that the average herd in the North was producing 500,000 l per farmer, which would suggest an average herd size of approximately 120 milch cows. This appears to be a bigger herd size than is the case with our farmers but I am told there is not a significant economy of scale as one increases one's herd size beyond 100 cows. The economies of scale do not get much better because one is obliged to pay paid labour, who probably will wish to work 40 hours per week, whereas a farmer probably would work for 60 or 70 hours a week. Consequently, it does not necessarily provide one with a lower cost base.

If farmers are not making a profit in either the North or South and are in competition in an environment of very powerful multiples, many of which were willing to come in to talk to us but one in particular of which was not, is there a common cause to ensure a fair return? That is the bottom line. There is a milk agency in the South whose only remit is to ensure an ongoing supply of winter milk. On the day on which its representatives were here, they were quite explicit that if something does not happen, we could wind up with no liquid milk in two or three years in the months of January and February, for example. It would obviously be a disaster if one could not buy fresh milk in the shops and had to use UHT as a reserve.

Is there a joint initiative possible, not to create a cartel for purchasers but to balance the relationship between the purchaser, processor and supermarket so it will be reasonably equal and so one part of the island will not be played off against the other to the detriment of farmers in both parts and, ultimately, the consumer? The day on which there is no milk on the shelves will be the day on which the consumer will ask why nothing was done about it considering that it was predicted.

We have approximately 1,800 dedicated liquid milk suppliers who supply all year round. From the figures, it seems that the North has approximately 1,900. Could Ms O'Neill confirm that they supply liquid milk throughout the year and are not supplying to dairies for the non-liquid milk market? I am interested in knowing the number of liquid milk suppliers in Northern Ireland that trade in liquid milk for 52 weeks in the year. As far as I am concerned, people who trade in liquid milk only in the summer are only piggybacking on the good times and do not incur the extra cost of producing milk when it is not very profitable to do so.