Farmers call for full €280m aid package

IRISH farmers would need the entire €280 million aid package on offer to EU dairy farmers this year to bring them back to profit, not the €11m they stand to receive, according to a farmers’ representative.

The €11m package will mean about a half cent per litre of milk, or an average of €600 for every Irish dairy farmer.

Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said she hoped the money would mean Europe’s farmers would stop spilling millions of litres of milk in protest and warned there was nothing left in the EU’s budget.