Derek Deane, Co Carlow

DEAR SIR: Mr Kent makes many political points in his recent letter regarding cattle tags while I am just making the case simply from the farmers’ perspective. He cites Ryanair as an example. I have always been a great fan of Michael O’Leary, so much so that I have invested in Ryanair shares over the years.

Mr O’Leary does not have two people doing a job that one can do or does not have his planes flying around half empty. Mr Kent somehow suggests that it would be better to have two or three companies supplying tags to farmers with all the extra costs and overheads that they carry rather than a single supplier supplying 2.5 million tags annually.

Mr Kent well knows that there has never been a monopoly of tag suppliers. The contract for tag supplies has been put up for open tender every few years by the Department to all interested parties and to suggest that this has not happened is nonsense. Mr Kent suggests some of the tag supplies should be given to some of the sheep tag companies. I suggest they should be given the full contract if they deliver a better price than the opposition. This is real economics, not political interference by people like Mr Kent and other public representatives favouring supplies going to a company in the west or elsewhere.

While I have been very happy with the service from Mullinahone I would like to think either themselves or another supplier could deliver a better price for us next time round.

In the interest of openness and transparency, I would like to see the Department publish each company’s cost per tag to supply either the full contract or part of that contract. This is my type of bizarre economics that Mr Kent has a serious problem with.