Amend 2012 New Entrants Scheme and Announce Animal Disease Quota Allocations Promptly – Kiersey

Speaking after a meeting of the Milk Quota Review Group, IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Kevin Kiersey said IFA had proposed that young farmers who have inherited small quotas should be facilitated in the 2012 New Entrants Scheme, and had urged the Department to deal as promptly as possible with over-quota farmers whose herds are locked up with TB.

“Some young farmers have, in recent years, inherited small, unviable milk quotas when their parents transferred their farms to them. Their situation is not fundamentally dissimilar to those in the ‘successors’ category, who are currently eligible to apply for allocations of free quota under the New Entrants Scheme,” Mr Kiersey said.

“I believe those young farmers, who have limited resources and often an urgent need to invest on upgrading facilities, should be given the same degree of access in the 2012 New Entrants Scheme as young farmers who bought small amounts of milk quota from the trading scheme under the “successors” category – and under the same conditions,” he added.

“A number of dairy farmers, whose herds have been locked up due to TB, have exceeded their quota due to their inability to sell off cows in the normal way. Those farmers are entitled to temporary quota allocations from the Milk Quota Appeals Tribunal, and I have urged the Department to deal with those farmers as promptly as possible, and I understand this year’s scheme will be announced very soon,” he said.

“The Department have agreed to give our proposal on New Entrants consideration, and I sincerely hope they will see the merit and fairness of introducing it in the 2012 New Entrants Scheme,” he concluded.