Farm organisations have sought the removal of Larry Murrin as chair of Bord Bia.

This comes following a meeting of the Bord Bia board on Thursday which was held in the wake of calls for Murrin to resign following the revelation that his company Dawn Farm Foods was involved iin importing beef from Brazil.

President of the IFA Francie Gorman said that when the chair refused to resign, he made a formal proposal to the board that Murrin be removed in the best interests of Bord Bia.

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The acting chair did not put the proposal to the meeting as he said it was a matter for the Minister for Agriculture, according to the IFA.

“I made it clear that farmer support is critical to the functioning of Bord Bia. What has happened here has had a devastating impact on farmer confidence. If Bord Bia is to have any chance of restoring this, then the Chair must be removed,” he said.

“I am conscious of my responsibilities as Director of Bord Bia and I absolutely believe that it is in the best interests of Bord Bia for the Chair to step down,” he said.

“I will now be contacting the Minister directly to convey my views,” he said.

ICMSA

Meanwhile, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) said that it is “left with no alternative” but to request departure of Larry Murrin as chair of Bord Bia.

ICMSA president Denis Drennan confirmed on Thursday that he supported a motion of no confidence in the chair. He said it is now up to Minister Heydon to restore farmer confidence in the semi-State body.

"The ability of Bord Bia to operate was wholly dependent on its credibility with farmers and that credibility had been severely damaged by the revelations around imported Brazilian beef and it was very specifically an issue that Bord Bia needed to address in the context of the sustainability schemes it operated.

“That’s at the heart of farmer anger here and it’s completely justified," said Drennan.

It was, he added, simply impossible to convince farmers that the degree of traceability and standards that Bord Bia insisted upon in their day-to-day audits of Irish farmers could be squared with the import of Brazilian beef.

"If a reasonable and plausible explanation had, at any stage, been publicly released by Bord Bia in the run-up to Thursday’s board meeting, then farmer anger might have been defused and a different conclusion might have been possible," Drennan argued.

The ICMSA, he added, was therefore left with no alternative but to request the chair departure.

Both Francie Gorman and Denis Drennan sit on the board of Board Bia, representing the IFA and the ICMSA. No other farm organisations are members of the board.

ICSA response

Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) president Sean McNamara has said it is now indefensible for Larry Murrin to remain as chair of Bord Bia after the board met on Thursday, discussed the conflict of interest surrounding his position and still failed to act.

“Bord Bia exists to promote Irish food and back Irish farmers. Yet its chair is linked to Brazilian beef at a time when Mercosur threatens to flood the market with unfair imports. That is a clear conflict of interest and farmers are rightly angry,” McNamara said.