Tirlán supported some 19,200 direct and indirect jobs across Ireland in 2022, according to an independent report by consultants at EY Ireland.

The Tirlán-commissioned Economic Impact Study also found that the co-op generated total economic activity of €5.5bn.

What's more, they paid out over €2bn to more than 5,000 farm families.

Launching the report on Wednesday, Tirlán chair John Murphy said that this “sets out the scale of Tirlán’s economic contribution, employment footprint and role in both national and rural economies”.

Employment

EY found that Tirlán employed 2,230 people directly at its 11 processing facilities, 52 agri-branches, offices and farm advisory network, with the work of an additional 6,700 people supported on its supplier farms.

The remainder of the indirect jobs are located across a range of different parts of the economy, such as logistics, retail and machinery sales, according to the economic analysis.

Murphy also highlighted the EY finding that for every €1 Tirlán earns in revenue, €1.80 is generated in the wider economy.

This, he said, demonstrates the “huge impact of agricultural activity across the rural economy”, which he warned policy-makers “should not take for granted”.

Capital investment

The EY report also noted that Tirlán spent €90m on capital investments in 2022, including a contribution towards the €200m investment in its new cheese factory at Belview, Co Kilkenny.