Size is everything in the world dairy business, so the theory goes, although shareholders in Glanbia might find reason to disagree with the theory. Still, the big dairy players are getting fewer and bigger with mergers and rationalisations the order of the day in Europe, the United States and now the Antipodes.

New Zealand has, in recent years, become a fairly concentrated dairy power, but now the New Zealanders are on the way to becoming a serious challenger to the likes of Nestle, Danone and Kraft following a three-way merger that will create a company controlling 95 per cent of New Zealand's milk supplies. It will also have combined sales of more than €4 billion (£3.15 billion).

New Zealand Dairy Board - the local marketing equivalent of the Irish Dairy Board - is merging with the two big farmer-owned dairy co-ops, New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Co-operative Dairies to create Global Dairy Company, an entity that claims to have more than one-third of what's called "internationally accessible trade" - trade where markets are not constrained by import barriers.

Mr John Roadley, boss of the merged company, said the merger would end the fragmented nature of the New Zealand dairy industry and allow it to compete more effectively on world markets. As for the farmers, they have embraced the merger enthusiastically as it will give the local dairy industry the critical mass it needs.

Now the New Zealand dairy industry has certain similarities with the Irish dairy industry. It is largely farmer-controlled through co-ops, the local populations are similar in size, it is next door to a big neighbour in the form of Australia.

But there the similarities end. Unlike the Irish dairy industry and its EU supports, the New Zealand dairy industry has had to stand on its own two feet once price supports were eliminated. The industry also recognises the need for scale - unlike in Ireland where the endemic fragmentation of the dairy industry is a bad joke.

The Glanbia merger - now in hindsight seen as grossly over-generous to dairy farmers - does not augur well for the creation of an Irish version of what the New Zealanders have put together. The p.l.c. model on which Irish dairy companies have based their expansion is unsuitable for the creation of an Irish dairy giant as farmers and institutional shareholders have totally different aspirations.

So what's the alternative if the Irish dairy industry remains unwilling or incapable of putting its house in order? Sad to say, there's no obvious alternative and until Irish dairy farmers begin to feel the pain in the form of low milk prices there is simply no pressure on the industry to do what is required.

The three-way New Zealand merger, which is the equivalent of the Irish Dairy Board (owned by the various co-ops) merging with the likes of Glanbia and Dairygold, has still to clear regulatory hurdles and will require some asset sales to satisfy local competition requirements. But it seems likely to go ahead and create a world dairy giant that will dwarf any rival Ireland can produce.

Can we expect some corporate moves at Green Property, now that Johnnie Ronan and Richard Barrett have walked away and Stephen Vernon's management group have pulled out of an MBO deal.

Green has just taken on a corporate finance high-flier as a non-executive director, in the form of Dennis Twining. Twining is a former Lazard director, an adviser to Regus and Commerzbank and was previously head of real estate finance at Salomon.

A pretty impressive CV and one that suggests that Green has not given up on the idea of a major corporate restructuring of the property group.