Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

It is important to have this serious debate on the future of agriculture in this country. I am concerned that in trying to support agriculture in eastern Europe it should not be done on the backs of Irish farmers.

I cannot understand how milk quotas operate in the European Union. There is an EU quota but they also have national quotas. At a time when the EU is under quota by 10%, Britain, our nearest neighbour, is under quota by 20%. I cannot understand the mentality of a regime under which good milk is literally being poured down the drain. A statistic is often quoted to the effect that 16% of the world's infant formula is produced in Ireland. That means that we are not selling into a closed market. It is not a market that is terribly vulnerable to a small increase in production by one small EU member state. It is a tragic waste, and morally wrong, to throw food away when there is no glut on the European market. When one stacks the whole thing up they are actually under quota, so there is no question of breaking the overall European target.

See this speech in context