ICOS has put together a set of proposals aimed at strengthening Irish and EU dairy, not only for the short term.

It also says that the industry must look to the future to see if the boom/bust cycle that has plagued the industry in recent years can be stopped.

The retention of around €850m of dairy superlevy monies in the industry to fund solutions is a given ICOS says and the EU Agriculture budget, while under pressure, has been further augmented with significant revenues from fines such as the recent €63m LPIS fine from Ireland and an even bigger French bill.

ICOS says it does not advocate the activation of the CAP ‘Crisis Fund’ which comes out of farmer’s Direct Payments that could result in a modulation of payments to all farmers of up to 2.7%.