The review considered what happens to agricultural food exports when the exchange rate weakens and shows that a 1% decrease in sterling results in a 0.7% drop in Irish exports to the UK, according to the report.

Ultimately, this means that a fall in sterling makes Irish products a lot more expensive for British consumers, resulting in the loss of export markets and, in turn, jobs.

With 41% of Ireland’s food and drink exports going to the UK, FDII director Paul Kelly said: “Urgent action is now required to protect our vital exports to the UK market, limit damage in the domestic market from imports and address competitive pressures caused by the fall in sterling.”

“A failure to act will compound the pressure on exporters, undermine Ireland's long-term position in the market and threaten jobs,” he said.

Currently, €1 is worth 85p sterling, but if this falls to 90p, which Ibec, which owns FDII and carried out the research for this report, believes will happen, there will be serious implications for Ireland's agricultural exports.

According to the report, this weakening of sterling is different to what we have seen before, like in the late 2000s, because it is not part of an economic cycle, but the result of a fundamental change: Britain leaving the European market. For this reason, the Ibec economic unit states that the result of Brexit will have much more serious repercussions.

The report notes that the potential impact of these job losses could cost the Irish Government €150,000.