Milk fuels a €500m boost for Limerick economy

FIGURES have been made available that underline the serious economic impetus provided by Limerick’s ‘flagship’ dairy sector.

ICMSA has published data estimating that the county’s dairy farmer income will comfortably reach €339 million this year.

ICMSA president Pat McCormack (pictured) noted that this milk revenue is multiplied by a standard 1.6 as it goes into the wider local economy and that, effectively, Limerick’s dairy farmer income is “worth well over half a billion to the local economy”.

Mr McCormack said the latest figures show what everyone should have realised by now: “Milk is the fuel of Limerick’s biggest indigenous economic activity. Farmers’ milk incomes go straight into their local economies through fertiliser, feed, various contractors, fuel, and services and retail of every type.”

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“Politicians had to realise that the kind of slow strangulation of our dairy sector that’s being presented as a ‘transition to lower emissions’ is going to have the most profound negative consequences for regions like Limerick and its hinterland.

“The kind of cuts that the Government is forcing through will have the same negative multiplier on Limerick’s economy as rising milk production and prices have had in positive terms.

“Limerick’s milk sector is the fundamental economic basis for the local rural economy; it’s the platform that everything else is constructed on,” said Mr McCormack.

Separately, Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan said last week’s Budget will help individuals, families, businesses and farms.

“Next year the Government will spend almost €90billion, an increase of €11billion from this year to respond to the difficult circumstances that people are faced with,” said Mr O’Donovan.