The outcome of the review into Bord Bia’s board governance carried out by Governance Ireland has been published by the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and makes no call for the chair to step down.

It follows controversy surrounding its chair Larry Murrin’s company Dawn Farm Foods importing some Brazilian beef.

The long-awaited review found that Bord Bia’s board is “very capable, engaged and committed, with a strong governance foundation with solid structures and processes”.

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The report makes a number of recommendations to support the board to strengthen its effectiveness.

Here they are in full:

1. Review and strengthen the induction process for board members, particularly clarity around roles and responsibilities including conflicts of interest and the Bord Bia act and the code of practice for the governance of State bodies.

2. Consider formulating a board member handbook to facilitate accessible practical guidance in one place.

3. Instigate a programme of ongoing governance refresher training for all board members and members of committees as needed.

4. Regularly update the skills matrix to help identify skills gaps that could be addressed via appointments to board, committees or subsidiary boards.

5. Review the board terms of reference (TOR) and the TORs of committees to ensure they include all relevant information and are fit for purpose and consider the addition of TORs for subsidiary boards.

6. The board may wish to consider changing the board TOR to enable a certain proportion of board members call a board meeting and ensure the agreed process is understood by all involved.

7. Schedule meetings of the ARC in a timely manner prior to board meetings to ensure relevant information can be included in board packs.

8. Instigate a delegated authority framework which is approved by the board and reviewed at regular intervals.

9. Bord Bia develops conflict of interest training and guidance in line with best practice, which references actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest and conflicts of loyalty, includes illustrative examples and also a greater level of detail regarding the process in dealing with actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest when they arise.

10. Draw up a more detailed policy and process for dealing with actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest, including the board deciding on the best approach to be taken and that all processes are rigorously followed and recorded in the minutes.

11. Training for all board members on the requirements for declaration of interests takes place and that, following this, all board members review their declarations.

12. Private sessions be scheduled on all board and committee meetings.

13. The chair and the board secretary review the meeting agenda plans to see what restructuring may be done to ensure the board can keep to plan while still affording appropriate time and space for discussion and consideration of important items.

14. The quality and format of board papers should be reviewed and enhanced where necessary to ensure the board’s attention and time is focused on what matters to the board and that key information is easily grasped.

15. The board reviews the current oversight structures in relation to the overall strategy of Bord Bia and the Origin Green and quality assurance programmes to enable confidence of board oversight of these key issues.

16. We recommend that key strategic and emerging risks are identified and agreed and discussed on a regular basis at board.

17. The board undertake a review of the current stakeholder relationship programmes and decide with the executive on the approaches to be taken and the reporting required by the board.

18. The board review and approve the crisis management plan.

19. The board participate in any post-crisis reviews to aid reflection and learning.

20. We recommend the instigation of a schedule of key documents to include TORs, policies, code of conduct etc, listing responsibility for review and sign off (ie board, a committee or the executive) and date of next review and that document control information be included on the individual documents as they are updated.

21. The board may wish to review the resourcing of the board secretary’s office.

22. A limited period of tenure across the board and subsidiary boards should be considered.