There is no evidence that agri business will be affected by a Brexit more than farmers, especially beef farmers. If prices drop, we can expect farmers prices to reflect that drop.

With the €100m fund announced by government, I would have thought the best way of getting cash to farmers was by direct payments rather than going through the processors – whose accounts incidentally and need for the cash are, in my view, utterly opaque.

I wonder if I was the only one that reacted with dismay

It was with fascination that I read over the Christmas break the Financial Times coverage of a book by Professor Mazzucato of London University, where he is quoted unequivocally as stating that state aid in Denmark after the financial crises was denied to companies using tax havens.

I wonder if I was the only one that reacted with dismay when I read of major meat processors in Ireland paying rates of tax on their profits through the use of tax havens, at far below the corporate 12.5% that is the headline rate in Ireland.

Losses and costs

This headline rate itself is low by international standards, but has served the country well in being at least part of the reason for the presence of the large multinational investment here.

I wonder if I was the only one that reacted with dismay

It would seem sensible that our Government look carefully at the Danish example of discriminating positively in favour of companies whose behaviour meets the norms of objective ethics.

It seems to me to be inherently questionable that losses and costs can be socialised and gains totally privatised in times like these.

I note the new fund will be administered through the state agency Enterprise Ireland, an agency well placed to take an informed view of the realities.