With all the controversy surrounding Minister Ross and the Wesley College hockey pitch debacle, The Dealer couldn’t help but draw comparisons between it and story I heard about the UCD ag science debating team.

Just like there appears to be an obvious gap in funding between some Dublin private school and public schools, there is an obvious gap in funding between the current debating team and the Dealer's generation.

In my days on the UCD ag debating team, seven of us piled into a battered old Fiat Punto that needed a push start, to trundle our way to debates.

Things have improved significantly for the class of 2018.

Having won the Irish round of the Great Agri-Food Debate, the team travelled to Wales to visit competition sponsors Dawn Meats' operation there as a reward for their victory. They were transported in the company's private plane to travel across the Irish Sea.

The boom is well and truly back.

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Watch: UCD wins Great Agri-Food Debate final

3,000 ag science students take to the fields for Farm Walk and Talk 2018