RTÉ’s Ear to the Ground presenter Ella McSweeney landed herself in hot water over the weekend on Twitter.

Commenting on a tweet that listed food production as one of the things Ireland is good at, the farming presenter replied: “Food production? Effective at exporting beef and dairy (altho at e’mental cost) [sic]; very poor at producing healthy, affordable variety of Irish foods for domestic market.”

Within minutes, McSweeney was taken to task by numerous high-profile farmers, including IFA president Joe Healy, Jim Mulhall, Julian Hughes and Bill O’Keeffe. Mulhall, chair of the fresh milk producers group, called the tweet “outrageous” and accused her of being on a “crusade” to boost her profile, while Hughes said it was a “really concerning standpoint from someone in a position of note in the media”.

McSweeney insisted her tweet was misinterpreted and did not imply that Irish food was unhealthy.