Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The provision of additional quota does not in any way contribute to current difficulties because Europe will be more than 4% to 5% under quota this year. Quotas will be abolished in 2015. We have argued for increased quotas so that there will not be a hard landing in 2015. For the primary producers and processors the dairy sector is very sophisticated and has the potential to grow. The best estimates available to us from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations are that there will be increased demand for dairy products in future. We believe there is a bright future for the dairy industry even though very serious problems face our dairy farmers and processors today. If the health check measures were unravelled, we might not have the market management measures to support us. That would be an outright catastrophe. We fought, practically alone until the final day, to retain those measures.

A meeting of the management committee took place today and just before I came in I was advised that further product will go into intervention and to export refunds also.

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