asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason a person (details supplied) in County Kerry will not qualify for extra milk quota under the Mulder scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The Community Regulations governing the allocation of quotas under this scheme provide that, only those producers whose non-marketing period expired after 30 September 1983 are eligible to obtain quotas.

As the period of non-marketing for the person indicated expired in February 1983, I regret that under these regulations he is ineligible to be allocated a quota.

During the council negotiations I had sought no exclusion of producers because of the date of expiry of their non-marketing period. While I was unable to obtain council agreement to this request, I did however, succeed in securing the more favourable date of 30 September 1983 which effectively applies only in Ireland as opposed to the date of 31 December 1983 which applies in other member states.