There is no legal basis for any of the dairy quota models put forward by the Department of Agriculture at Monday’s meeting of the Food Vision dairy group, according to the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA).

IFA president Tim Cullinan said: “I want to be very clear. [The] IFA will not accept the imposition of a quota of any kind on any sector.”

Cullinan made his comments on Tuesday after Monday’s third meeting of the dairy group, which has been tasked with developing a plan to stabilise and then reduce emissions from the dairy sector.

The IFA will also meet with Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue on Tuesday evening, along with other farm organisations, to discuss the food security challenges brought about by the war in Ukraine.

Contradiction

Describing the current situation, the IFA president said: “Over the weekend, we had the Minister calling for a war-time effort to produce more food. Now he wants to limit production. It’s a complete contradiction.

“[The] IFA will challenge any attempt by the Government to impose a quota on our sector. The previous quota system was an EU-wide regime. Any attempt to impose a quota in Ireland would not be consistent with the principle of the common EU market.”

He described the proposals put forward at the dairy group meeting as “completely at odds” with public comments previously made by dairy group chair Prof Gerry Boyle, who said any measures recommended by the group would be voluntary.

Modelling

The Tipperary farmer called on Minister McConalogue to “come clean and outline when the Department’s modelling was done and when they arrived at their preferred option of a quota on the volume of milk produced”.

Reacting to the quota proposals, IFA dairy chair Stephen Arthur said: “Farmers joined the Food Vision dairy group to participate in a discussion about sustainability and our climate targets. It now appears that the Department already had a predetermined plan.

“The Department should now provide all the documents they have prepared to the group as a matter of urgency. [The] IFA is opposed to any crude measures that seek to limit production. Instead, we should be developing and embracing technologies to reduce emissions.”

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