Ireland's poorest farmers, the 49,000 sheep farmers, are having a very difficult year because of bad weather and the collapse of the market for ewes.
After a reasonable spring, things began to go wrong in the autumn. Most of Ireland's sheep-meat goes to continental Europe, mainly France, and from the beginning of the summer Irish producers found they could not compete with British exporters. Lamb from Wales and Scotland undercut Irish prices.
But perhaps the greatest difficulty was the demand from the EU that there be a massive de-stocking programme on overgrazed areas. This led to panic selling of mountain ewes before the 200,000 animals which must be taken off hills and commonages came on the market.
For a time earlier this month, farmers literally could not give these so-called "cull" ewes away, and this coupled with falling demand for lamb in France has created difficult trading conditions.
However, last week it was announced that the State will pay the 15,000 hill farmers £30 per head for each ewe they dispose of and this is bound to help ease some of the difficulties.
Sheep supplies at export meat plants, however, are running at 9 per cent higher than at the same period last year. In all, 2.5 million lambs have been slaughtered so far this year.