Mr. Joe Healy:

The first part of the Chairman's question relates to the end of quotas and the increase in dairy production. When the quotas were introduced, Ireland was at a very low ebb of development in the dairy sector. What typified that more than anything was that the Netherlands had nine times more milk per acre in a quota than Ireland had. It was obvious that we were caught. A whole generation of Irish dairy farmers lost out, since we would regard 31 years as a generation. It was obvious when that straitjacket was removed that there would be an increase in production. We have probably reached that. It was always going to happen and the pace of it was probably a bit faster than expected. The pace was probably increased by the lack of alternatives in agriculture. When young people came back to any farm that had a block of 40 ha or 50 ha, they saw that milk was more profitable than beef production and that is what they went into. There is a problem with the age structure of farmers across Europe. The numbers in Ireland are no different from elsewhere in Europe, with approximately 6% under 35 and over half our farmers over 55. The milk production in Ireland, even with the increase, is still less than 1.5% of total milk output in the world. America probably produces more milk in a month than we produce in a year here.

There is a spin-off from that in that there is more beef. To have competition, it is imperative that we do not have the lax attitude that occurred with lairage spaces in Cherbourg this year. We need a more intensive attitude from the Government.

On the day we were in Cherbourg, we saw two lairages with capacity for about 4,000 calves, yet there was not one calf in those lairages. That was terrible to see, with so many calves which farmers want to sell and get out of this country and with customers in Europe for them. To be forewarned is forearmed and it cannot be allowed to happen next year. We need export facilities for at least 400,000 animals. We fought hard last year to have the export levy on the calves removed altogether. Some 50% was removed, which was worth €1,100 on every load of calves. That made our calves competitive on the European markets which is how we increased live exports by 30% last year. We must ensure that trend continues and that up to 400,000 animals leave here in coming years.