Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have spoken to Commissioner Hogan about these issues on many occasions in the past couple of weeks. I am glad to say we speak regularly. The intervention I made this week, when I called for an open mind on the use of intervention measures, is on record. If this tool is to be used, there should be a realistic intervention price, as otherwise it will act as a price drag in reality. Nobody has been championing the superlevy issue more than me in the past two years. Anyone who has been following the EU debate will know that Ireland leads on it practically every time. The truth is that even though a majority of EU member states would like something to be done about the superlevy, we could not and still cannot get a qualified majority to agree at Council level. There is a particular eagerness to change butterfat levels, which would have helped to solve the problem. In effect, it would have given us an extra 1.5% or 2%. We are looking to do other things in the case of the superlevy. For example, we are trying to extend the repayment period over a number of years. This would make the cashflow issues pertaining to the superlevy much more manageable. We are making good progress in that regard.

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