The Irish Farmers Association has staged a surprise protest outside a restaurant part-owned by Bord Bia chair Larry Murrin with the aim of highlighting his "hypocrisy" when it comes to Irish food production.
The association’s poultry committee members, including mainly a group of poultry growers from Monaghan and Cavan, arrived at the upmarket SOLE Seafood & Grill restaurant on Drury Street in Dublin’s city centre shortly before 1pm.
With placards and IFA banners in hand, about 30 farmers set up on the narrow street outside the building.
IFA poultry committee chair Brendan Soden told the Irish Farmers Journal that the IFA was seeking to draw attention to the restaurant’s use of food from outside Ireland, including chicken from the Netherlands, rather than Bord Bia-approved chicken – and prawns from Bangladesh.
That the chair of Bord Bia would have such produce on his restaurant’s menu was “gone beyond a joke”, he said.
“We’ve the chair of Bord Bia and he won’t buy Irish food,” he said.
“You couldn’t write it if you tried to.”
Brazilian imports
Soden and his fellow poultry committee members have called for Murrin’s resignation from his role as Bord Bia chair since earlier this year, when it was revealed that his company, Dawn Farm Foods, had imported Brazilian beef and chicken.
He’s going off on a trade mission and then not buying Irish food himself
That call for Murrin’s resignation still stood, he added, calling on Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to intervene.
“The man had the chance to tidy up his act after what went on at the start of the year and he chose not to do it,” Soden said.
He said most diners at the SOLE Seafood & Grill restaurant would have expected such an establishment to market Irish produce.
“There seems to have been no effort to do that at all,” Soden said.
“[Murrin] has been quite blatant about it.”
The IFA poultry committee chair said Murrin was doing “unbelievable” damage to Bord Bia and its reputation by insisting he stays on as chair.
“He’s going off on a trade mission and then not buying Irish food himself,” he said.
Bord Bia has been contacted for comment regarding the protest.
Public
Protesters said that there was strong interest from the public on the matter, with many unaware the restaurant was using imported meat.
Passerby John said he thought the farmers had a right to be annoyed about the situation.
“I’m not an expert, but I find it sad to disregard the Irish agricultural sector in a bid to source cheaper meat and probably poorer quality.”
Response from manager
“Myself and my two colleagues that went in with me, Robert McBride and Vincent Quinn, we told the manager we were three chicken farmers from Monaghan, we explained that we wanted to talk to the owners about the sourcing of their food and we asked the manager would he make contact with them.
“He was very reluctant to make contact with the owners, he said they weren’t there. We told them we’d be here for quite a while and we would be outside. He reluctantly agreed to contact them and ask for a meeting.
“I thought it was very poor telling us we had to email our request in when we were there in person.”
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