Written answers

Wednesday, 6 July 2016

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Dairy Sector

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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237. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his proposals to the European Union Agriculture Commissioner relating to the urgent need to provide additional support for the dairy sector following the Commissioner's statement (details supplied) that the provision of further support for that sector is justified; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19971/16]

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I am acutely conscious of the pressure farmers are under at present, and I can assure the Deputy that I am committed to exploring all of the appropriate options for providing assistance to the farm sector through current difficulties.

Volatility in the dairy sector is a global issue to which a cohesive response is essential. Therefore, it is vital that we continue to work closely with the Commission and all other key stakeholders in this regard.Having discussed issues with national stakeholders, I am currently working with Commissioner Hogan and other EU Ministers with a view to finding pragmatic, realistic and workable solutions to these ongoing difficulties.

I believe our focus must remain on providing real, practical and immediate assistance for farmers. In addition to intervention, I have called for the deployment of other measures that will provide real benefit for farmers in the short-term in particular, the bringing forward of the delivery date for direct payments. Such a measure will be of immediate assistance to farmers in acting as a source of immediate cash-flow and a buffer to ongoing volatility.

I have also asked the Commissioner to consider the deployment of a further targeted aid package, similar to that provided last September. The September package gave considerable flexibility to Member States to adopt responses suited to their national circumstances, and I believe such a measure, with appropriate flexibility could play a further important role in 2016.

A number of other market support measures have been put in place at EU level, including an increase in the ceiling for SMP intervention to 350,000 tonnes, which was sought by Ireland. 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.

I agree that we should continue to look at all means of assisting farmers. But in doing so we should focus on direct and practical measures, and avoid taking any action that would in any way compromise their long-term prospects.

A prolonged period of volatility in dairy markets has been in evidence in recent times. However it is important to remember that the medium term prospects for global dairy markets are good. How we mitigate the current volatility is the challenge.  Volatility in dairy markets is a global problem, an EU problem and an Irish problem for which there is no single silver bullet. Fixed price and margin contracts, futures markets and access to increasingly flexible forms of credits are all part of the toolkit that will be required. In this respect we must continue to work with industry and the financial services sector at a national level to ensure resilience is built into the sector in the current period of volatility and going forward, strengthening our position within the global market.

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