FARMERS should be allowed to produce food to keep starving people alive instead of being forced to dump milk because "they fear EU penalties, the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Frank Allen, has said.
Mr Allen said it was absolutely crazy that Irish dairy farmers were facing fines when 20 per cent of the population of the developing countries was hungry.
"Irish farmers should be allowed to produce food to keep starving people alive. The current restriction on production which prevents this happening leaves me with the inevitable conclusion that the lunatics have taken over the asylum," he said on Monday.
The State's 49,000 dairy farmers have been warned that they face fines in the region of £33 million next year if they continue to overproduce milk at current levels.
Figures published this weekend show that at the end of October dairy farmers were producing 3.5 per cent more milk than is allowed under current EU regulations.