Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I appreciate that the Minister of State understands the gravity of the situation and I thank him for his interest in the subject matter. I know he would concur with my view that down through the generations in rural areas, milk was the liquid gold which kept economic activity flowing. Unfortunately recently and in the past six months in particular that liquid gold has very much lost its lustre. The milk price being paid to dairy farmers has fallen to an unprecedented level. Sadly the statistics speak for themselves. A few short years ago milk was making 34 cent to 36 cent per litre. It is now down to 21 cent or 22 cent. Given that the Minister of State has responsibility for food, he will be aware of the rate being paid for the same product in supermarkets by consumers and the gulf between the producer price and what the consumer eventually pays. The gap in those figures needs investigation.

Based on the statistics it is clear that it is not viable for the vast majority of dairy farmers to produce milk at anything like 20 cent or 21 cent per litre. There was a time when almost every farmer in Ireland was a dairy farmer. Then there was consolidation. When the milk quotas were introduced we moved on to a numbers system whereby one or two farmers per townland were involved in the dairy industry. If the current trend continues there will probably be no more than one farmer per parish involved in milk production because the economies of scale will be such that anything smaller would not be viable, which would be tragic. We need to do everything possible domestically and internationally through the EU to protect family farmers and the smaller dairy units and to ensure that a significant number of farming personnel can remain in the dairy industry. We need to recognise that they cannot do so with milk prices of 20 cent or 21 cent per litre.

From the perspective of policy changes, the milk quota era is coming to an end. That is a problem which could become a solution or vice versa. There are problems on the international milk market by way of milk coming in from third countries. There may be difficulties with demand and excessive supply in parts of the equation. However, we need a political and marketing response as well as a strongly planned response at EU level to ensure the long-term viability of dairy farmers and family farms in particular. We must agree that it is not financially possible for farmers to produce milk at 20 cent or 21 cent per litre. Changes are urgently needed to improve matters.