Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I assure the Deputy that large member states such as France and Germany were totally opposed to any increase in milk quota. We got the butterfat adjustment which is the equivalent of a 2% increase which is very important also. All of us who speak to dairy farmers will talk of their frustration when the calculation is made with regard to butterfat. It lifts up delivery levels as such.

I was in the Deputy's constituency recently and spoke to individual farmers there who are very anxious to get additional milk quotas. A number commented that this is the first time, to their knowledge, as it is to mine, that we succeeded in getting the butterfat adjustment. Over the next few years, the increase in quotas amounts almost to 10%, calculating the value of the milk quota at the present poor levels that unfortunately pertain in the dairy industry. This is an issue of concern to all of us who are involved in the sector, particularly to dairy farmers and the pressures they experienced this year. We hope that the value will increase and that this sum of €100 million will prove a conservative estimate rather than a real one in the next year or two. We hope that dairy prices will increase by then.

With regard to the €70 million mentioned by Deputy Sherlock, the calculation is arrived at, roughly, by the €24 million unspent and by our being able to use the national reserve funds that we cannot use at present. These are worth €6 million to €7 million on an annual basis.

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