Speaking to UTV Ireland news anchor Alison Comyn, the minister said the last two years have seen all time highs in terms of milk prices, which will put prices following dairy quota abolition into sharper context.

Coveney focused firstly on the good news about measures put in place to "hedge and insulate farmers from price volatility" and cited milk processor Glanbia as an example of this.

As reported in the Irish Farmers Journal Glanbia announced earlier this month that it will pay at least 30.5 cent per litre including vat for milk in January, February and March.

However, the minister added that without such guarantees in the future "milk prices are likely to drop every five years or so."

Also on the subject of dairy farming the minister said that Ireland aims to be the fastest growing milk producer on the planet for the next 10 years and that Ireland will see a "50% volume growth in the next five years and a doubling of the milk we produce as a country over the next 10-15 years."