Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I would love to have a Europe wide milk quota. It would mean we could increase Europe's output of milk by 4% or 5% because that was the amount it was under quota last year but we must get real. We cannot even get agreement on a butterfat adjustment never mind a radical rethink in terms of the way we manage quota across the European Union. I agree with the Deputy on that but it is important not to mislead farmers in terms of what is and is not possible. France and Germany are fundamentally opposed to any change in milk quota management because they hold the view that if the reins are released at all there will be an immediate increase in supply which will impact on prices. They are paranoid about that, as are some of their farmers' unions.

It is important to state also that even though some countries are raising concerns about milk quotas ending in 2015 the big countries, including France and Germany, and the vast majority of other countries, have bought into that happening and, like Ireland, are preparing for it. That will happen in 2015 but I would make the point that even though Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Cyprus and two or three other countries want more flexibility around butterfat adjustments and an increase of more than 1% in quota allocation for countries pre-2015 - that 1% increase each year is the only flexibility we have currently - there are countries that are fundamentally opposed to that.

We have put together informally a coalition of the willing but it is not yet big enough to force change. The Council will not change this because it has an agreed milk health check, which Ireland signed up to in 2009. That is not working but if this is to change we will need a qualified majority in Council to push through that change. We could not do any more to try to achieve that but we will not get there by the end of this quota year unless there is some dramatic change that I am not expecting in the coming months.

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