When he was taoiseach, Leo Varadkar argued for special treatment for Irish agriculture, on the basis that we are, in his words, “feeding 50 million people”.

Earlier this year, Varadkar – now retired from politics – expressed some markedly different views on the Paths to Power podcast. He noted that farmers “still see themselves as the people who bring money and jobs into Ireland, where actually a lot of the time they bring costs on Ireland”.

Presenter Matt Cooper pointed out that farmers are not the main source of food in Ireland, as it is estimated that around 80 per cent of food consumed in Ireland is imported.

Varadkar replied: “It’s actually worse than that. We now have so many cattle in Ireland that we can’t grow enough grass to feed them. So we bring in grain from South America, from Mercosur countries, to feed the cattle and we bring in oil-based fertilisers from other parts of the world. And that then pollutes our rivers, and then we all pay the bill.”

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While Varadkar was subsequently excoriated for his remarks, they capture some broad truths. Yet no politician still in the Dáil would be likely to voice this view for fear of being hounded from office, so powerful is the farming lobby.

When we joined the EEC in 1973, that power was borne out by the numbers: one in four of the workforce was employed in farming, and the sector was the backbone of the economy. Today, the situation is radically different, with only one in 25 whose principal employment is in agriculture, forestry and fishing. Yet the agricultural lobby continues to exercise an influence entirely........

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