Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 16 February 2017
Public Accounts Committee
2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector
9:00 am
Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:
No. It was in place for the year. The milk processing year runs to the end of March. It was for the year to the end of March 2015, the last period for milk quotas, during which we went over quota as our farmers essentially geared up for the ending of quotas. We fought very hard, with a number of other member states, to have the regime to be changed in order that penalties would not be imposed for that year. We lost that battle, but we did secure the arrangement referred to in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, as part of which the superlevy was to be paid in instalments.