Suppliers body urges €64m in funds should go to support dairy farmers

AS much as €64 million will shortly become available to the Government and should be used to support dairy farmers, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) said yesterday.

Jackie Cahill, president, said he had raised the necessity of securing the money from three different pools with Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Minister Brendan Smith

“The situation on dairy farmers’ income is now so desperate that we just have to maximise the budgets wherever possible. We anticipate that this money will become available over the next twelve months,” he said. The ICMSA leader said up to €30m of new funding is likely to become available later this year from unused EU funding.