I must own up to a personal interest in that I have had an ACC chequebook for almost 40 years, so I have seen them move from a totally State-owned institution, set up to service Irish agriculture.

In the early ‘70’s, it was the institution chosen to link up with the Department of Agriculture and channel World Bank funding directly to Irish farmers in preparation for the opportunities that were to flow from entry to the then Common Market.

The project was unique at the time and was managed by Peadar McConna, who was seconded from the Department of Agriculture. He did a first rate job. The loans were all paid back, farms were developed and Peadar McConna was recruited by the Bank of Ireland to be its Chief Agricultural Officer, one of the key agricultural posts of the time.

Then the Dutch agricultural giant Rabobank said it was acquiring the ACC from the Government.

We forget how universal the desire to get away from agriculture was in the late ‘90s and up to 2007. It was not only the Irish banks that there caught up in this rush out of anything related to farming. The conservative, triple-rated Rabobank, which was always internationally focused on farming and agribusiness, joined enthusiastically in the rush with truly disastrous consequences.

Literally billions have been lost in the Irish subsidiary, the ACC, so the whole operation is being wound down and the banking licence surrendered.

While Rabo will continue with its specialist agribusiness lending and will maintain its Rabodirect deposit taking arm, it is effectively casting aside its farmer customers who so warmly welcomed it into the country on the basis that it was probably the leading agricultural bank in the world and would bring a degree of knowledge of the sector and commitment to it in its banking relationships.

Even at this stage, I am not clear why they cannot issue Rabobank chequebooks to their Irish farmer ACC customers. I know it has all been an awful mess from the parent company’s point of view in Holland but it seems short-sighted to exit the actual farming market with such potential in Ireland at this time.

We should also be given the luxury of a glance-back to the 1920’s when the ACC as the Agricultural Credit Corporation was set up by the government of the day not only to lend money to farmers, but also to develop special expertise in agri business.

One of its first agri business tasks was to put together the Dairy Disposal Company so that farmers would still have an outlet for their milk where co-operatives ran into difficulty.

Most of these creameries were sold on and absorbed by existing stronger players as time progressed but the remaining rump was sold in the early 70’s to the group that became Kerry Group as we know it today. With the demise of the ACC we are seeing a significant chapter of history closing.