The National Milk Agency has confirmed that its members do not receive a salary but do receive travel expenses.

There are 14 members of the National Milk Agency which was set up in 1994 to "regulate the supply of milk for liquid consumption throughout the State".

The National Milk Agency is financed via a levy of 0.115 cent per litre of milk purchased for processing for liquid consumption.

According to the agency Irish consumers have one of the highest per capita consumptions of fresh milk in the world "with an estimated annual per capita consumption in the region of 113 litres".

The agency's latest figures suggest national consumption of fresh milk was 564 million litres in 2024.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine appoints the chair and board members to the National Milk Agency.

National Milk Agency

The make up of the agency has been in the spotlight recently following concerns raised by the Independent TD for Offaly, Carol Nolan, "about the length of service of certain members on the board of the National Milk Agency".

Deputy Nolan has acknowledged the importance of sector-specific expertise in such roles but has also questioned the period of time that some members may have served on the board of the agency.

According to the TD for Offaly information supplied to her by Minister Martin Heydon showed that "several individuals have served continuously for very significant periods, with the former chairperson first appointed 1994, and who then served until resignation in 2025 (over 31 years)".

Deputy Nolan said it was also confirmed to her that "a producer representative was appointed 1994 and has served 10 terms while the consumer representative who was appointed 1997, has served nine terms". 

"Additionally, the distributors’ representative was first appointed 26 years ago in 2000, and has now served 8 terms," she added.

Deputy Nolan has stressed that she is not calling for the removal of experienced members but for "a more balanced approach that brings in new voices while retaining necessary expertise".

The current list of members of the agency includes:

According to a spokesperson for the National Milk Agency the Minister for Agriculture "seeks nominations from representative organisations who can nominate the same person from their membership".

It has also outlined that "producers are elected and can be re-elected".

The spokesperson added: "The process is different from organisations as the process is regulated by the very specific provision of the Schedule to the Milk (Regulation of Supply) Act, 1994 .

The spokesperson also highlighted that the purpose of the Act is "to regulate supply and representatives are selected by the provisions referred to above, because of the role they play in that regulation".

"They receive no payment for fulfilling this function," the spokesperson added.