18 Mr. Foley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his views on the recent sharp down-turns in farm product prices for cattle, milk, grain and sugar beet; the preliminary estimates, if any, he has sought from his Department in relation to the effects of these price falls on the incomes of farmers in each of these sectors and on national farm income as a whole in 1997. [10746/97]

I am fully aware that the most recent information relating to farm product prices for the items mentioned shows a decline over 1996 levels. There are a number of reasons for this, as I explained in detail in the Dáil during the debate on the Private Members' motion last week, including pressures from international markets, export refund cuts and green pound revaluations.

The declines will be compensated to some extent by the green pound revaluation package which will be paid out in May to producers in each of the categories mentioned by the Deputy.

My Department is, of course, carefully monitoring the situation for these and other commodity sectors. However, it is much too early to attempt to estimate farm income for the year as a whole.