Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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322. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline the proposals he put forward to the European Commissioner for Agriculture and at the Council of Ministers meeting relating to the urgent need to provide appropriate supports for the dairy industry due to the serious decline in returns to farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6033/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I very much welcome the Presidency conclusions on the proposal for the package of support measures to address challenges in the dairy and pigmeat sectors which was agreed in Brussels at last month’s Council. This follows on from an earlier package of measures agreed in September of last year and takes account of the ongoing difficulties being experienced in the sector, where the duration of market turbulence has gone well beyond previous expectations.

The package reflects the majority of the demands presented by Ireland to the Commission and other Member States in advance of Council, in particular the doubling of the intervention ceiling for skimmed milk powder and butter. I also welcome the Commissioner’s undertaking to consider further flexibilities in the PSA scheme for Skimmed Milk Powder, and to look at further flexibilities in the State Aid regime.

At all times I remain concerned about the references to supply control in run-up to Council and in the Presidency conclusions which emerged after Council. We have been very consistent in our view that milk quotas did not serve Ireland well and their abolition was a welcome development which will allow our dairy sector reach its full potential. I am assured by the fact that the measures proposed at Council are voluntary, agreed at the level of the first purchaser of the milk and are strictly temporary in nature. They do not constitute a return to quotas and both the Commission and the Presidency were extremely clear on this point. I am also opposed to allocating new EU funding to incentivise such reductions.

In terms of input costs at farm level, I have called on the Commission to consider looking at temporary suspension of EU import tariffs on fertilisers to reduce input costs for Irish and EU farmers and I understand that the Commissioner is looking favourably on this request.

The Presidency conclusions also refer to the possibility of advance payments under CAP, as was done in 2015. In addition I can confirm that the direct top-up will issue to young dairy farmers in the near future. This is the final stage in the payment of €26.4m direct aid to dairy farmers funded by the exchequer and the EU.

Furthermore, with respect to financial instruments, I welcome the proposal for the European Investment Bank (EIB) and member states to work together with the Commission on the feasibility of an EU export credit tool. However, I believe the EIB needs to be more proactive in designing loan products in partnership with member states.

It remains clear that we need to deal urgently and effectively with this temporary problem. We must ensure that EU farmers are protected from the worst impacts of low commodity prices in an appropriate way, but remain well placed to avail of emerging opportunities when markets recover.