Dr Harty was presented with the title by President Michael D. Higgins. Dr Harty was also named as winner of the International Category earlier.

Headquartered in Causeway, north Kerry, Dairymaster also has operations in Britain and the USA, and now employs over 300 people internationally.

This week I asked him what he thought had swung the award in his direction. “I think the judges were amazed at the level of technology within agriculture and the variety of new innovations – from feeding to heat detection – that we have developed over the last number of years,” he said.

“The fact that we manufacture in Ireland, export worldwide and the wave of goodwill towards the agri dimension definitely helped as well.”

Edmond Harty was awarded two trophies and now has the opportunity of representing Ireland as part of a world entrepreneur competition next June in Monte Carlo.

He said: “I was inundated with messages from well wishers and the publicity the company received is brilliant. I was delighted to be selected as overall winner because we were up against some stiff competition, including two publicly listed companies in our category.”

A mechanical engineer by profession, Edmond Harty joined the family business in 1998 while studying for a PhD in UCD where he focused on the area of milking performance.

With Dairymaster he has focused on in-house R&D, manufacturing and the application of advancements in engineering technology.

He was one of 24 finalists from throughout Ireland to qualify for the competitive final stages of the 2012 programme.

Dairymaster – the key facts and figures

  • Dairymaster was set up in 1968 by Edmond’s father, Ned Harty.

  • Today, Dairymaster employs over 300 staff and sells its products into 40 different countries worldwide.

  • Exports now account for 75% of total sales.
  • Edmond is technical director, while his brother, John, is the operations director.
  • Milking machines account for 70% of sales.
  • Automatic scraper sales started in Britain in 1990 and the USA in 2000.
  • Dairymaster has offices in Britain and the USA.
  • The business has five key divisions today: milking equipment, feeding equipment, automatic scrapers, cooling equipment and heat detection equipment.
  • Ninety five per cent of all parts are made in Causeway, Co Kerry.