Councillors support calls for Bord Bia chairperson to stand aside

Roscommon councillors have agreed to write to the agriculture minister calling on him to request Bord Bia chairperson Larry Murrin to step aside temporarily in a bid to end the stand-off with the IFA.

The IFA has called on Mr Murrin to resign or be removed over his company’s sourcing of beef from Brazil. Its members have also been staging a protest at the Bord Bia offices in Dublin for several weeks.

Making the proposal to write to Minister Martin Heydon, at the February meeting of Roscommon County Council, Cllr Laurence Fallon said he was very familiar with Bord Bia because he had spent five years on its sub board.

He did point out that Mr Murren was “an exceptional businessman in his own right and has employed a lot of people and that is not to be taken from him”. However, he said the current situation had happened because “of a very intransigent chairman”.

Cllr Fallon pointed out that Mr Murren had imported Brazilian beef and that his business was “not quality assured”.

“We’re in a very serious situation because we have an excellent body called Bord Bia who have spent years and years promoting Irish food across the world. A shadow has been cast over Bord Bia and over Irish beef...when you consider the possibility of what’s coming in from Brazil,” he said.

The Independent councillor said that the Irish Farmers Journal and the IFA conducted a tour of Brazil over a number of months following a similar one about 20 previously “and nothing has changed”.

He proposed that in the interests of finding a solution for the IFA members sitting outside Bord Bia offices for over 20 days that Mr Murren step aside in the interests of “meaningful negotiations” taking place.

Cllr Fallon said that if this didn’t happen, the entire beef and food industry will be in crisis and the whole future of Bord Bia and quality assurance schemes will be under threat.

Elected members agreed with Cllr Fallon’s proposal that they would write to Minister Heydon calling on him to request that Mr Murrin step aside for a period of time so that meaningful negotiations would take place and that the IFA protest would end.

“The current situation cannot continue. It’s intolerable. It’s doing untold damage to the food industry in Ireland,” said Cllr Fallon.

Councillors also supported Cllr Nigel Dineen’s proposal that the Minister remove Mr Murrin on a permanent basis in the event that he doesn’t step down.

Roscommon IFA chairperson Pat Leonard and incoming chairperson Sean Finan were present in the council chamber’s public gallery during the discussion.

*Published under the local Democracy Scheme