John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 69: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food his views in relation to the continued need for the use of market management measures in the dairy sector in view of the ongoing fragile nature of the market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16792/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The EU Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) provides a range of measures that can be used to manage the dairy market, and these were modified in the CAP reforms of 1999 and 2003. In the Health Check negotiations in 2008 there was pressure to remove or weaken the support measures significantly. At that time I fought hard to keep the key market instruments in place and the importance of the retention of these support measures was proven last year when the dairy market experienced a dramatic decline. I pressed the Commission to take all appropriate measures to deal with the dairy market situation, and there is no doubt that the implementation of a range of support measures helped to stabilise the market in 2009. I will continue to maintain close contact with the EU Commission and the Council to ensure that support measures are activated at levels that will make a real impact on the market.

I am committed to a strong and adequately resourced CAP after 2013 and I believe there is a continued role for existing market measures. The experience of the dairy sector in the past year reinforces this view. Furthermore, there is also a need for new measures which could assist in managing market volatility, and the Commission High Level Group on Milk is currently considering this issue. The Group was tasked with examining medium and long term ways of stabilising dairy farmers incomes and improving market transparency. It is expected that the Group will present a report by the end of June 2010.