*Bord Bia Chair, Larry Murrin.
AN EAST Clare councillor has rowed back on his calls for the Chair of Bord Bia to resign while Clare’s only female TD has doubled down in seeking Larry Murrin to step down.
Pressure has been mounting on Murrin to step down as Bord Bia Chairperson after it was emerged that Dawn Farm Foods, the company that he is CEO of, is importing Brazilian beef to Ireland for some of its products.
IFA members have protested at the offices of Bord Bia since January 26th and Murrin has insisted he will not be stepping down from his role. He appeared before an Oireachtas Joint Committee last week.
Having initially tabled a motion before Clare County Council calling on the “the Minister for Agriculture to request Larry Murrin to resign from his position as Chair of Bord Bia,” Cllr Conor Ryan (FG) watered down this motion.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting, the newest member of the Council said “on mature reflection and having sought senior counsel on the matter, it was decided that the motion as it stood should be amended but I believe the sentiment of my original motion is still there”.
His amended motion called on Minister Martin Heydon (FG) “to arrange a meeting between the Chair of Bord Bia, Larry Murrin, IFA, ICMSA and other farming stakeholders in the interest of dialogue. For the Chair to brief the stakeholders and answer fully and comprehensively all questions to the satisfaction of the farming organisations”. He said if the answers supplied were not satisfactory that the Bord Bia Chair should be asked to step down.
Questions flagged by the IFA have not been answered by Murrin, Cllr Ryan stated while voicing his support for the ongoing protest. “Farmers in rural Ireland are livid, it is a terrible insult, with the many issues affecting Mercosur, the Chair of Bord Bia is importing Brazilian beef to this country”. He said the Bord Bia Chair’s performance at the Oireachtas committee demonstrated “he is a formidable individual”.
Backing the IFA, Cllr Pat O’Gorman (FF) commented, “I know Conor was trying to water down the motion, I think the IFA are 100% right and Larry Murrin should go as Chair”. He continued, “Bord Bia are there to promote Irish beef and farmers in a more general way, importing Brazilian beef into the country when we’re trying to stop it, is a real kick into the teeth of all farmers, let him run Dawn Farm Foods whatever way he wants but give Bord Bia to someone else”.
Support for the motion was also provided by Cllr Pat Burke (FG) and Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle (SF).
Clare TD, Donna McGettigan (SF) said Murrin must resign from his role. “The Minister has the power to remove this member from the board with immediate effect. Irish farmers and their representative organisations have lost confidence in the chairperson, and it is time to listen to them. For Sinn Féin this is about standing with Irish farmers, protecting consumers and defending the integrity of Irish food. The chair must resign, and he must resign now.”
She outlined, “The Bord Bia quality and trust mark is something I trust and look for as a consumer. It means something to people. It tells us that what we are eating is safe, meets the highest standards and comes from our land. The fact that I can trace what I am eating back to a farmer or field in Ireland is reassuring and something I value deeply, not just because you are what you eat, but because it allows me to know I am contributing to supporting local farmers and suppliers who work tirelessly to uphold those standards.”
“This is not just a rural issue. This is an urban and rural issue. Transparency about what we are eating matters to every family in every community. Yet, we now have a situation where the chair of Bord Bia, an organisation whose own website states it exists to promote Ireland’s outstanding food, drink and horticulture to the world, is at the same time importing Brazilian beef that we know entered Ireland with banned hormones. This is an unacceptable conflict. As a consumer this leads me to have a lack of faith in the chair of the board. If he continues in that role, I and many others will lose faith in Bord Bia altogether. Trust once broken is not easily repaired”.
Meanwhile, Murrin’s appearance before the Oireachtas Committee where Clare TD, Joe Cooney (FG) stumbled over the line ‘do as I say not do as I do’ led to him being the subject of a satirical piece by Miriam Lord in The Irish Times titled ‘The Bodyke Inquisition’. Ms Lord neglected her research by failing to realise that Deputy Cooney is a native of O’Callaghans Mills and a proud Mills man when calling him “the deputy from Bodyke”.
