Tipperary businessman Louis Ronan earned dividends of €2.38 million last year from Enfer Technology, the company that manufactures test kits that can detect BSE, or mad-cow disease, writes Simon Carswell, Finance Correspondent

This brings to just under €50 million the total dividends earned by Mr Ronan from his company in the five years to December 2006.

Turnover at Enfer Technology fell again last year, to €13.2 million from €15.9 million, according to accounts just filed for the firm. Pre-tax profit dropped by 18 per cent to €2.6 million last year.

Enfer's sales have been falling steadily in recent years, as have the dividends paid to Mr Ronan - from €21 million in 2002 to €4.4 million in 2005.

Enfer, which sponsors the Tipperary hurling and football teams, is the parent company of Enfer Scientific, which developed a quick test to screen meat for BSE in the late 1990s.

The company enjoyed a boom in sales in the early part of this decade when the test was sold widely in the Republic, the EU and the US after being approved for use.

In 2003, Enfer paid Mr Ronan dividends of €14.2 million after making a profit of €17.25 million on sales of €29.7 million, representing a 58 per cent margin.

The Department of Agriculture stopped subsidising BSE testing at meat plants in 2004, driving down the price of BSE tests by 30 per cent.

Enfer employs 100 staff in Naas, Co Kildare, and Clonmel, Co Tipperary. Mr Ronan (52), a cousin of property developer and Treasury Holdings director Johnny Ronan, owns 85 per cent of the company. The remaining shares in the company are owned by vet Michael O'Connor.

Enfer's expenditure on research and development fell from €1.2 million to €435,000 last year. The company's three directors - Mr Ronan, Mr O'Connor and accountant Martin Crowley - received remuneration of €468,000 in 2006, up from €402,000 the previous year.