Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To use a different analogy, if Deputy Cahill was going to Thurles mart with the only calf for sale at the mart on that day, that would be fine, but if there are a couple of hundred calves in the pens outside that will impact on the market price that is available on the day.

If there is an overhang of value worth €650 million in skimmed milk powder on the market that of itself is an influencer on the market. The response is a prudent one and does not take away the instrument of intervention and there may be further purchases of intervention in 2018. It is a time measured intervention in that it will apply for 2018 only. Anybody that would argue that we should have done nothing and maintained the status quois wilfully ignoring the fact that skimmed milk powder of that volume and value is of itself an influencer on the market.

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