Cahill says debate on milk/quota price essential
He told a conference at Teagasc Moorepark that the current debate is all about quota and never about milk price. But the reality is that price received is the key issue for farmers, and it is this fact on which the EU, the Department of Agriculture and Food and processors need to focus, he said.
Mr Cahill said any other approach amounted to an exercise in rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship. Calling for a practical focus that benefits dairy farmers, Mr Cahill warned of the dangers of “half-baked analysis”. “Decoupling in the form of the virtual abolition of market supports and the switch to direct payments has decimated dairy farm incomes in Ireland and across the EU. This is contrary to the analysis and commitments given by the Commission to justify only compensating for 60% of the price support reduction. Dairy farmers were the only group treated in such a fashion in the Mid-Term Review and we don’t intend to be fooled twice,” he said.
