Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 137: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position regarding the ownership of the Irish sugar quota; when she was informed of the decision to close the Carlow facility; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26218/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the EU sugar regime, each member state has a quota for manufactured sugar. There is no quota for sugar beet. The EU regulations stipulate that the quota must be made available to the sugar manufacturing enterprises in the member state. Accordingly, in Ireland the entire sugar quota is processed by Irish Sugar Limited, which is the only sugar manufacturer in this country. Irish Sugar Limited places annual contracts with farmers to grow a specific tonnage of sugar beet sufficient to manufacture the sugar quota.

Ownership of the sugar quota had never been an issue in the past because the relevant EU regulations do not provide for the buying and selling of quota. Speculations about quota ownership only arose when the Commission, in July last year, raised the possibility of cross-border quota mobility, in the context of their initial thinking on reform of the EU sugar regime. Several member states, including Ireland, voiced strong opposition to the idea of cross-border mobility and I am pleased to say that it does not form part of the Commission's legislative reform proposals which were published in June. In any event, the EU Commission has confirmed that the quota is not an asset owned by the member state or any other party but is simply a mechanism for regulating the market.

The decision by Greencore to close its plant in Carlow and consolidate all of its sugar manufacturing in Mallow was a commercial decision taken by the board on 12 January 2005. The company advised my Department two days in advance of the board meeting that a proposal concerning the future of its two processing plants and involving the likely closure of the Carlow plant would be put to the board for decision.