April 1, 2021, 6:34 pm
In 2005/2006 as the Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks seemed set on an inevitable ‘giveaway trade’ deal that would sacrifice much of Irish agriculture and particularly its beef sector, the food sector, in conjunction with the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), looked at employment across the Irish economy on a ‘per county’ basis.
The interesting fact that this analysis highlighted was that in at least 16 of the 26 counties in Ireland at the time, farming and agribusiness were the biggest employer.
This was huge news to the modern economy bodies and a government at the time which had just jointly declared agriculture to be a sunset industry!