Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 335: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the requirements for a person (details supplied) in County Carlow to acquire milk quota. [16460/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The primary means of acquiring milk quota is through the Milk Quota Trading Scheme. The Trading Scheme is run twice annually in respect of each Co-op collection area, and is comprised of a priority pool and a market exchange. A maximum of thirty per cent of the quota offered for sale is sold into the priority pool at a maximum price set by the Minister, and the remainder is traded through an exchange at prices set by sellers and buyers themselves. The next Trading Scheme will take place in the autumn, and will be followed by a further Scheme in early 2012, both of which will make quota available to buyers with effect from 1 April 2012. I hope to announce the Scheme details in the second half of August.

Under the recent Scheme for the Allocation of Milk Quota to New Entrants, the eligibility criteria for brand new entrants to dairying required that each applicant must:

satisfy certain education and training qualifications,

have no milk quota, nor have been a producer previously,

have/will have a holding comprised of lands owned and/or leased,

have/will have a separate independent herd number in which the dairy animals will be registered,

have/will have separate milking and milk storage facilities.

Further schemes are planned for 2012 and 2013, and I hope to announce details of the 2012 Scheme early next year.

The other means by which milk quota may be acquired are through the purchase of land and quota on the open market or through the leasing of land and quota from a qualified relative.