Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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135. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the proposals he put forward at the recent European Union Agriculture Council meeting in relation to the need to extend the end-date of the private storage scheme to help off-set the impact of the Russian ban on the export of food products from the European Union to Russia; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6471/15]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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148. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the proposals he put forward at recent European Union Agriculture Council meetings in relation to the need to provide adequate market support measures to off-set the impact of the Russian sanction on exports of dairy products from the European Union; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6502/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 135 and 148 together.

At the last Council of EU Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels in January, I reland made the point that the continuing weakness in the global dairy market was having a severe impact on dairy farmers in Ireland and throughout the EU. While the medium term outlook was positive, it was important that the EU Commission use the measures available to it to assist the situation in the short term. We acknowledged that the Commission had already taken the step of extending private storage aid for butter and skimmed milk powder to the end of September 2015 and proposed that such aid should be re-introduced for cheese. We also proposed serious consideration of intervention, to be undertaken at price levels that would positively support the market.

From previous contacts with the Commission, we had received assurances that it would be possible to phase the burden of super levy payments for producers over a period of time and we sought assurances that this could be extended to the level of Member State. The Commissioner has promised to respond at next month’s Council to this proposal.

As regards other products affected by the Russian embargo, we called on the Commission to introduce a scheme of aids to private storage for the pig-meat sector, referencing the rapid and substantial drop in prices and the real effects being felt by producers from the loss of the Russian market.