No changes in leasing prices for 2004 demanded

DON’T change the restructuring and temporary leasing prices of 31c/litre and 4c/litre in 2004, IFA Dairy Committee Chairman Michael Murphy told the Milk Quota Review Group last Monday.

The leading farmers' group also wants the priority quota allocation system divided into two categories "small or medium" and "larger", to be allocated restructuring quota at the ratio of two to one.

New entrants and producers losing private leases should retain their current level of priority, according to IFA, which wants lessees to whom land and quota leases were re-assigned after, for example, the death of the original lessee, given the same right to buy out the quota as the original lessee would have had.