EU to open the cheque book

YOU can now go on the internet to find out how much money individual food processors and farmers in 13 of the 25 member states get from the EU.

For example, you may be interested to find out that the Northern Ireland division of the Co Cavan based Lakeland Dairies got €5,442,316 in export subsidies in 2004.

No great secret about that; the figure is probably in their annual report, but if you know any farmers north of the border, you can go to the www.Farmsubsidy.org website to see how big a Single Farm Payment cheque dropped in their front door this year.