Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 521: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the legal status of milk quota; if it is an asset or a licence; if the Revenue Commissioners concur with her view; if ownership is controlled by the farmer, the State or the commission; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35179/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Milk delivery quota, as defined in the European Communities (Milk Quota) Regulations, 2000, (SI No. 94 of 2000), means the quantity of milk or other milk products which may be delivered by a producer to a purchaser from his or her holding, in accordance with the Regulations, in a milk quota year without the producer being liable to pay levy. These Regulations, as amended, allow the Minister to introduce schemes for the surrender of milk quota at the end of each milk quota year and the reallocation of the surrendered quota at the beginning of the subsequent milk quota year, including the setting of a maximum payment for surrendered and reallocated quota. The Supreme Court, in its 2001 judgment in the case of Maher and others-v- Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and others, as reported in the Irish reports, held that the entitlement to a milk quota could not be equated to a right of property within the meaning of Articles 40.3.1, 40.3.2 and 43 of the Constitution.