Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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71. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to abolish the butter fat quota; and if so, when it is likely that this will happen. [46502/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the related issues of milk quota abolition, the “soft landing” and the butterfat coefficient correction have been the subject of much discussion at EU level over the recent past. Milk quotas will be abolished from the end of March 2015 and I have been very active in seeking to secure further measures to ensure a soft landing for milk producers in the period in advance of this. In terms of the current quota position, at the end of October it was estimated that Ireland was 7.15% over-quota, with month-on-month increases continuing to be evident. At current rates, this would result in a superlevy bill of approximately €115m. The superlevy is set by milk quota Regulations agreed at EU level. Any amendment to the regime requires a proposal from the Commission and agreement of a qualified majority of all other Member States.

At numerous Agriculture Council meetings over the recent past the issue of additional measures to ensure a ‘soft landing’ to milk quota abolition in 2015 was discussed, where I, and some other like-minded Ministers consistently called on the Commission to take action to ease the burden of the super levy in the final year of the quota regime, via the butterfat correction in particular, but such an agreement was not forthcoming at the time and this remains the case. As there is no common position at the Council of Agriculture Ministers such an adjustment looks unlikely to be achieved.

As the Deputy may be aware, for super levy purposes, butterfat causes an adjustment to milk supply – the greater the differential between average butterfat (current levels) and reference fat levels (base fat), the greater the adjustment to milk intake levels. The proposed solution is to reduce the positive butterfat co-efficient and increase the negative one to ensure fair distribution across Member States. Technically, this can be changed under Commission competency at Management Committee level. The Commissioner has said they will not move on butterfat without majority support at Council, and unfortunately, as outlined previously, there number of countries opposed to any move on butterfat is such that an impasse has been reached and an agreement has not been forthcoming.

It must be clearly noted that a number of other countries are opposed to any action on the issue of further soft landing measures and have actively sought to link the issue to possible measures to regulate supply after quotas are gone. I am obviously resolutely opposed to any suggestion of supply controls after quota abolition next April on the basis that these quotas have only served to shackle Irish farmers over the last 30 years. The resultant stalemate means there is insufficient support for any change to the regulations and no agreement has been possible. The current Italian presidency agreed to consider the issue at their first Council meeting in July, it was again discussed in October and I fully expect that the issue will remain high on the agenda for discussion at future Councils, including December, where I will continue to seek to have the matter progressed in a way that is fair to both Irish and EU dairy farmers.

In preparing their enterprises for the post quota era, I have at all times urged that farmers have regard to the fact that milk quotas would remain in place until April 2015, along with the associated superlevy regime, and I would take this opportunity today to reiterate this call. I would again urge farmers to use the time period between now and the removal of milk quotas to identify, with their dairy adviser, steps to manage both their milk supply and their dairy herds so that they have an efficient herd as they enter the post quota era.