Hogan said the recent fall in prices “have been mainly driven by worldwide oversupply – over a 5% increase in the EU alone in 2014 due to favourable price and weather conditions - combined with a slowdown in global demand."

He said that the Russian ban was not the main determining factor of price drops and added that the average EU gate price was still at 34 cent/litre. He spoke about the downward trend in the over-quota figure in November and December and implied that no superlevy support would be given.

"(Farmers are) heeding the advice given," he said, referring to measures to reduce production.

Storage aid

Hogan also announced the extension of Private Storage Aid (PSA) for butter and Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP) until the end of September 2015.

Just over 26,700 tonnes of butter and 17,900 tonnes of Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP) have been taken off the market and put into private storage since the beginning of Sept 2014, according to DG AGRI. Some 8,014 tonnes of Irish butter is in storage.

Ireland ends year 5.93% over milk quota