Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will tell a little story with a funny twist in the tale. When I went to Connemara, I wound up as a co-op manager with a committee and €3,500. We got a grant to set up the co-op and a business to try to get a good market for hill lamb. We applied to the bank - I think it was AIB - but even though we were getting a substantial grant, we were refused. We then applied to the ACC. I realised that unless the State bank was a little bit more adventurous than the private bank had been, my goose would be cooked before I got anything going in the co-op and I did not like that prospect. I was very young at the time; I was in my early 20s.

I decided not to take any chance the second time, so we made the application to the ACC but I decided to go one step further and telephone the chairman of the ACC whose day job was managing director of Clover Meats.

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