Decoupling is double-edged

COMPETING with the best in the world, but getting 75 to 80% of their incomes from the EU and the Government, is how the Government’s new agri-food action plan sums up prospects for Irish farmers.

How to reconcile contradictions like these posed a difficult task for Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan and her staff.

And it didn’t help that its release coincided with a major stockbrokers’ report, predicting that the Irish economy could double in the next 15 years.