Background: It was the French who first brought us the sugar beet industry and, ironically, it was at least in part the French who have taken it away, writes Seán Mac Connell, Agriculture Correspondent

None other than Napoleon was responsible for setting up the sugar beet industry during his protracted war with England which blockaded the French ports, cutting off the sugar cane supplies on which the sugar industry then relied.

History tells us that Napoleon decreed the setting up of the first sugar beet factories to get sugar for first, his army, and then his people. A new industry was born.

Fast forward nearly 200 years to the negotiations on the future of Europe's sugar industry where Ireland tucked in behind the French for cover from the cuts the European Union (EU) Commission was dealing out to reform the package.

France supported Ireland for a time but in the end French interests came ahead of ours and we are now facing the death of an industry which was one of the first founded by the new State.

The rules of the World Trade Organisation have forced the EU to slash its subsidies on sugar beet production and, ever since the days of Napoleon, it has been impossible to grow the crop commercially in an open economy without support.

It has been clear since the final package was agreed by the EU last year that we are not talking about if the industry closes down, we are talking about when it closes.

Globalisation, the need for reduced tariffs and the demand from the major sugar cane producing countries that the EU no longer support sugar beet manufacturing has won the day.

The first sugar beet factory set up by the State was opened in Carlow in 1924. It was more than just a place to process sugar.

It involved the entire community and some say helped resolve some of the difficulties created by the Civil War as the community began to co-operate in the new venture.

More factories were to follow, driven by the isolation of the second World War and the need for self-sufficiency.

Beet became a very important crop for many small farmers and very profitable for the larger ones.

Now, the factories in Thurles, Co Tipperary; Tuam in Co Galway; and Carlow itself have closed down, leaving the industry a skeleton of what it used to be.

Only one Irish processing plant remains open under Greencore, the company born out of the privatised Irish Sugar company in the late 1980s. At Mallow, Co Cork, it processes the 1.3 million tonnes of beet which is converted to 199,000 tonnes of sugar.

The European Union says this is surplus to requirements.

The 3,700 beet growers left in the State are no longer fighting to keep that last remaining plant open.

The fight now is about how much compensation they should receive as opposed to the company operating the factory.

Part of the EU reform is to offer huge compensation to sugar processing companies who will surrender their sugar beet quota. For Greencore, there is €145 million available to close the Mallow plant.

The farmers say that this money rightfully belongs to them because the closure of the plant will mean an end to their livelihoods and the loss of €150 million.

They have already tabled a demand to Government that they want at least €106 million of the EU compensation and Greencore is saying nothing.

Yesterday, its chief executive David Dilger expressed a hope that there would be sugar processing in Ireland this year but the farmers say he is doing nothing to ensure there will be.

The two sides are well dug in. Just who will win most has yet to be determined.