Mr. Eddie Downey:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for inviting us today to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the dairy sector and Irish dairy farmers. Accompanying me today are IFA national dairy chairman Sean O’Leary, IFA national liquid milk chairman Teddy Cashman, IFA general secretary Pat Smith and IFA dairy executive Catherine Lascurettes.

The end of 31 years of quota creates a real opportunity for Irish milk producers, who operate cost-competitive, grass-based production systems, to supply fast growing global dairy demand for high quality, sustainably-produced dairy products and ingredients. However, this positive outlook comes with major challenges around volatility of prices and input costs in particular. Indeed, dairy farmers all over the world are currently living through a difficult period of sustained low milk prices.

Extreme income volatility for dairy farmers has been the norm since 2007. Farmers will need tax policies and milk price instruments to help them manage this reality. In addition, farmers will need well-resourced advisory services to help them improve efficiencies further. The Government must also ensure that the banks give farmers access to flexible, internationally competitively priced finance with variable repayments to reflect income variations. At the conference of parties, COP, in Paris in December, the Government must secure climate change legislation which gives farmers credit for their low carbon footprint in the global context, and which does not prevent them from expanding sustainably.

I will hand over to our national dairy chairman, Seán O’Leary to present the issues in greater detail.