The Department of Agriculture is considering introducing a national dairy farmer retirement scheme as opposed to installing a new cow or volume quota, the Irish Farmers Journal can reveal.

It comes following the latest meeting of the Food Vision Dairy Group, which is due to deliver its first report next week.

It is also understood that new research which shows how modern dairy cows are producing less methane when grazing will be taken on board in future work by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department.

This could have positive implications for Irish dairy farmers.

ICOS was asked by Food Vision Dairy Group chair Gerry Boyle to review existing retirement schemes and in its presentation this week it said that a retirement scheme or a culling scheme was not ICOS policy.

It also suggested that carbon should be the focus of this group, not milk.

Funding a dairy retirement scheme is the big question for the Department to answer. ICOS highlighted the examples of the Glanbia scheme funded by the Glanbia suppliers, and the 2016 EU scheme that was publicly funded to allow a rebalancing of dairy markets.

The IFA had called for the group to be suspended in the aftermath of the Department announcing to the group that cow or volume quotas were back on the table.