It seems that only political will can fix what seems an unjust tax demand being placed on Kerry milk suppliers regarding patronage shares purchased in recent years.

The following are the words of Minister for Finance Michael Noonan in relation to his decision to forego the €13bn in tax that was assessed as being due to Ireland from Apple: “It’s my absolute judgment after examining all the factors that this is the best course of action. To do anything else would be like eating the seed potatoes and destroying the future for people for short-term advantage now.”

If the same logic is applied to the Kerry patronage shares, Revenue will have a poor harvest from this cash-crop they think they have uncovered.

The long-term damage in this case will be to the concept of the co-op. The founding principle of the agri co-op movement is that the primary producer will have collective control over their economic destiny.

Listen to "Kerry co-op shares, tractor sales and TB - Podcast Ep. 87" on Spreaker.

As one generation of Kerry shareholders has handed on to another, the shares have become separated from milk production. Typically, one child got the land and dairy enterprise, the shares went to the others. The purpose of the preference share scheme was to ensure that active farmers retained an interest in the co-op. Shares were purchased at €1.25 and put in a drawer, only to be opened in case of dire necessity. The value of the shares could not be realised by the active farmer, so to give those shares a value of €95 based on the tiny proportion that are actually traded hardly seems fair.

Minister Noonan, don’t let Revenue force farmers to eat the seed potatoes, because the only way of paying these bills would be to sell the shares they so need to keep to maintain some influence on their dairy processor.

Short-term gains, long-term losses – and in your own backyard too.

Leadership from within Kerry is required. The co-op has neither a chair nor a CEO at present, following Stan McCarthy’s resignation in June, and James Doyle’s failure to be returned to the board.

The leadership must instead come from the board, and from the plc.