Economist Ciarán Fitzgerald highlighted the importance of agri-food to the Irish economy, pointing out that each 1% reduction in agri output means €120m is lost to the sector itself, but €240m is lost across the wider economy.

Fitzgerald warned that the Government’s economic misrepresentation of agriculture, while over-stating the value of the tech industry, promotes the idea that farming contributes little to the economy and would be easily replaced.

He added that Irish agriculture was being characterised in debate “as a polluter first and foremost”, while its economic impact was ignored or dismissed.

Meat and dairy output were being defined as unsustainable foods, while horticulture was being promoted as an alternative income stream despite there being no economic basis for that, he told the conference.

Fitzgerald said he was concerned that there is an anti-agriculture narrative resulting in the national debate being focused on cutting cow numbers instead of cutting carbon emissions.

He warned that the credibility of what he called the “anti-livestock woke propaganda” and the uneconomic promotion of horticulture as an alternative panacea was not sustainable.