Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Overproduction of 1% is €15 million. If it is 3% or 4% the sums are relatively easy to do. They are the ballpark figures we are talking about. In a debate like this we must take the more extreme figure because it will be the most penal for the industry. Individual farmers will be faced with this. They will also be faced with an increased income tax bill. The income levels for 2014 were such that individual farmers are going to have the accounts dropping in from the Revenue Commissioners saying that they will have to pay additional money come next October on the basis of their production figures for 2014. In many ways, the background to this debate is 2014, the perfect storm. There was a weakened global dairy market position and we had a period of good weather and good prices with increased milk production in every region of the world. Irish dairy farmers produced a record 5.6 billion litres of milk in 2014, 4.5% more than in 2013. It was the perfect storm - falling prices, the Russian ban, world oversupply and a big tax bill on 2014 profits. In late 2014, Chinese demand dropped to a very low level when the Russian ban came into effect.

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