Farming

Coveney ‘stands over’ decision to abolish dairy quotas

Milk quotas ended in 2015, with dairy cow numbers increasing fourfold since to 1.6 million

Simon Coveney, Minister for Enterprise. Defending the decision in 2015 to abolish milk quotas, he said, ‘Many dairy farmers in Ireland were operating in a straitjacket, unable to fulfill their potential in terms of our their dairy herds.’ Picture: PA

Simon Coveney, the Minister for Enterprise, has said that he stands over the decision to abolish milk quotas for Irish farmers

These milk quotas were put in place by the EU in 1984 to restrict the size of the dairy herds in the country due to concerns about over-supply of milk to the EU market. However, they were abolished in 2015, leading to the size of the dairy cow heard increasing by about 400,000 to ...