Sir, - May I comment on the remarks about General Costello by Kelvin Myers (Maya 16th)? As he is dead the General cannot defend himself.
It is quite wrong to say that General Costello "didn't care a fig for profits". The facts are that he made large profits for the Irish Sugar Company. The figures (present values in brackets) are, as an example: 1953, assets £7 million (£106 million), profits £360,000 (£4.6 million). 1960, assets £10 million (£126 million), profits £390,000 (£5 million) and those did not include heavy investment in new machinery.
In 1958 General Costello was directed by the Taoiseach, Mr Sean Lemass, to set up Erin Foods, which began operating in 1960 and promised up to £25 million to fund it. He received, in effect, no startup funds, only operating funds of £5 million, comprising £3 million in share purchase, by the Department of Finance; he was told to borrow £1 million secretly from the Belgian Sugar Company (private, source still alive) and £1 million in cash. A.J.F. O Reilly himself, when he took over, declared that it was underfunded and according to the author of The Sugar Industry in Ireland, Michael Foy, O Reilly did not change a lot.
Costello was interested in both profit and social interest, the urging of the Minister for Agriculture when Erin was founded, Dr Jim Ryan. He said: "Erin Foods is set up to give Irish farmers an increased opportunity in the development of the Irish economy by better utilisation of their land, and to further the Irish economy by the provision of employment in food processing factories." Both O'Reilly and Costello are good Irishmen and it is deplorable to try to set them and their admirers at one another. O'Reilly told this writer that he was aghast to see his biographer savage Costello and he wanted to set it right. Wise man. Boomerangs don't pay. Mr Myers also said that AGF was an enemy of Costello, which was wrong.
Costello and the Sugar Company employed 4,000 people in the 1950s. Mr Myers does not give the date or the enterprise, whether Sugar Company or Erin Foods, giving the lie to his words that MJC employed nobody here. Could he give us the data to substantiate his claim that Mr O'Reilly employs 10,000? It is ininquitous and probably abhorrent to Dr O'Reilly also to see a claim like this in a reputable newspaper.
Hitherto it was the English who tried to set the Irish at loggerheads, with one another. Mr Myers said existing capital must be added to. So true but alas, finance did not add it for Costello. To cap it all Mr Myers concluded with an antiCatholic jibe. Shame. - Yours, etc., Glasnevin Avenue, Dublin 3.