Parents of school-going children face increased charges for school milk because the Government has failed to subsidise the scheme, George Kearns, secretary of the National Dairies' Association, has claimed.

The EU Commission subsidy has been reduced from £1.09 to 81.75p per gallon from January 1st. "Our dairies anticipated the consequences of the Commission's decision and for more than a year have sought co-financing through the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development." he said. According to Kearns, the total cost of the subsidy to the Exchequer would be £300,000 a year. Milk may now cost up to an extra 2p a day per pupil.