End of milk quotas - Opportunity that must be maximised

It’s almost 40 years since Ireland became a member of the EEC in 1973.

Back then this was a conservative, self-contained, agrarian society reliant on the whims of British consumers to make a profit on exports which were primarily farm produce.

Even after half a century of independence we were, ironically, dependent on the markets provided by Britain. It may be galling to concede but we were, in economic terms, very much a satellite state and our capacity to develop was largely in the hands of British buyers of Irish farm output.