Tirlán chair John Murphy has welcomed a "fantastic" year for the co-op, as Tirlán reported that its group revenue increased by 5% last year to hit the €2.66 billion mark.

Speaking at the Tirlán Sustainable Dairy Awards at the Heritage hotel in Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Murphy told Agriland that the "dairy stars are aligning at the moment".

He said: "We have the weather, we have the milk price, we have the volumes. So it’s been a really good year, so far so good.

"All our plants are full to capacity at the moment, which is fantastic. We commissioned a 455 million litre plant last year, so a fantastic year. The mood in the dairy business is quite positive right now."

At the event, Tirlán CEO Seán Molloy also said that he is optimistic 2025 will be a "positive" year for both Tirlán and dairy farmers.

Molloy told Agriland: "What’s great for our farmers is that milk volumes this year are going to be well up on last year, probably in the order of 5%.

"That shouldn’t be market impactful, because essentially you’re just catching up on the previous years when it fell.

"It also means our processing assets right across the industry will be fully occupied. There might have been fears in some quarters that the assets wouldn’t be needed, that’s certainly not turning out to be the case," he added.

Molloy also highlighted that the co-op wants to “play its part” by bringing in new suppliers in 2025.

He explained: “Since milk quotas were taken away in 2015, we’ve welcomed 580 new suppliers. Last year we took on 45; this year something in the range of the mid-twenties will come to us.

“We hope over the coming months, to be working very closely with new folk and encourage them to get into farming, because that’s a key challenge for the industry,” Molloy said.