The Supreme Court has rejected a property rights challenge by three farmers to rules governing the sale of milk quotas under a State restructuring scheme.
Nicholas Philip, otherwise Martin, Maher, Malachy Brett and Rita Ryan challenged the European Communities (Milk Quota) Regulations 2000. They argued that the rules effectively required them to sell valuable milk quota to the Minister at substantially below its market value.
The applicants were no longer actively producing milk. They said returning to production was not realistically open to them because of their individual circumstances. Under the restructuring scheme, the maximum price for surrendered quota had been fixed at 30 pence per litre, about £1.36 per gallon. Evidence for Maher put the claimed open-market value at £3 per gallon.
Mr Justice Murray held that milk quotas had to be viewed in the context of the European Community’s heavily regulated agricultural market. The quota system was designed to control production, stabilise markets and support producer incomes, and had been repeatedly amended over time.
The court found that the 2000 changes were internal adjustments to that regulatory system. The applicants retained the ability to resume milk production and use their quota. Their quotas had not been confiscated or forfeited.
The judge rejected the argument that the opportunity to sell quota at a particular market price was itself a constitutionally protected property right. The higher price relied upon by the applicants was also a product of the regulated quota system rather than an independent market entitlement.
The court reached the same conclusion under European Community law. Existing Court of Justice authority established that Community property protections did not include a right to dispose for profit of quota allocated under a common market organisation.
Mr Justice Murray therefore found no infringement of the applicants’ property rights under either Irish constitutional law or Community law and would dismiss the appeal.