‘Without this scheme I would be at home on my own all the time’

SHEILA O’Keeffe is a farmer’s wife from the tiny village of Tullylease, in north west Cork.

In the 1980s, a milk cheque paid for all their costs, but now it barely covers the basics.

The price of feed and manure have spiralled upwards, but what the O’Keeffes get for their cattle and milk has not.