The Maximum price of milk quota under the new restructuring scheme has been fixed at 30p per litre - approximately £1.36p per gallon - by the Minister for Agriculture and Food. Mr Walsh said it would be open to co-ops which operated the restructuring scheme to set a lower price in their areas.
In setting the price, Mr Walsh said he had been conscious of the need to find a balance between the interests of those quota holders who would be selling milk quota into the scheme and producers who wished to purchase additional quota.
The price, he said, taken with favourable tax treatment announced under the Finance Bill, would allow producers to buy permanent quota under the revised scheme and put them in a far more secure position to develop their enterprises than having to depend on temporary leasing on a year-to-year basis.
From the end of this month, the link between a milk quota and the land on which it was produced will be broken for the first time since 1984.
The production of milk will be dealt with through a pooled system at co-op and dairy levels under which quota holders may, at the end of each March, offer all or part of their milk quota for sale to their co-opor dairy.
The co-op/dairy in turn may sell milk quota only to producers attached to its business on the basis of priority categories set out in a new set of rules.
From April 1st, it will not be possible for quota holders not engaged in milk production to lease temporarily their milk to other producers.
This will eliminate the so-called "sofa" farmers who up until now made their living by leasing their milk quota, which was basically a licence to produce, to other farmers.
Ireland is allowed produce 1.1 billion gallons of milk annually under EU regulations.