Representatives from the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) will not attend meetings of Bord Bia’s technical advisory committee (TAC) next week, the organisation’s president Denis Drennan has confirmed.

The organisation will not be in attendance due to a split in the board of Bord Bia - on which Drennan sits - over chair Larry Murrin.

Murrin and Bord Bia have been embroiled in controversy this week over Murrin’s company Dawn Farm Foods importing Brazilian beef.

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Drennan and president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Francie Gorman did not express confidence in Murrin at a meeting of the board of Bord Bia on Thursday, while the other 11 members did.

The ICMSA president said members had not received a public explanation around the issues relating to the Brazilian beef imports and in the absence of a public explanation to farmers, the ICMSA would be unwilling to attend the meeting.

“Farmers are absolutely entitled to the same degree of transparency and detail from Bord Bia as Bord Bia demand[s] from farmers in their audits – that’s just a basic principle of fairness and [the] ICMSA is going to insist on that.

“The Minister and Bord Bia need to come forward with proposals on how transparency around beef imports is to be addressed so that everyone will know who is buying it and where it is being sold,” he said.

The meetings were due to discuss the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) and the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS).

Bord Bia’s Quality Assurance (QA) standards are developed through the TAC.

This committee is made up of representatives from the agricultural industry, Bord Bia, farm organisations, Teagasc, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), the Department of Agriculture and other technical experts.