Two county councils passed motions on Monday calling for Larry Murrin's term as chair of Bord Bia to end.

Councillors in Wexford and Carlow councils both voted for Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to act to break the current impasse.

In Carlow's case, the vote was unanimous, according to Independent councillor Charlie Murphy.

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"Councillors from all parties and none agreed today," he said. "Standing orders were suspended and a motion was considered, calling on Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to write to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Agriculture calling on the Government to ask Larry Murrin to step aside. It was passed unanimously."

This followed a meeting the previous evening in Carlow, organised by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) and attended by local politicians.

Among those present were both Carlow TDs - Fianna Fáil's Jennifer Murnane O'Connnor, who is a Minister of State, and Fine Gael's Catherine Callaghan.

Sinn Féin's Natasha Newsome Drennan, the Carlow-Kilkenny Sinn Féin TD, who is a member of the Oireachtas agriculture committee, also attended.

Wexford also calls for change

In Wexford, a majority of county councillors also approved a motion calling for Larry Murrin to be prevailed upon by Minister Heydon to step aside.

The motion was proposed by Aontú councillor Jim Codd and adopted by a majority, including some, though not all, Government party representatives.

"Bord Bia act[s] as a watchdog to ensure that Irish food of a high standard," Cllr Codd told the Irish Farmers Journal .

"I recently spoke to a farmer who was treated like a criminal because a couple of cattle were missing tags. It’s double standards for the chair of Bord Bia to be importing Brazilian beef, which has none of the traceability around health status or animal medicine use that all Irish cattle have.

"It’s double standards, so I proposed a motion calling on Minister Heydon to intervene and ask the chairman to step aside.

"The sheer audacity of it all; that those tasked with protecting our beef industry are those bringing in Brazilian beef. My party have been active in investigating labelling and packaging of beef, chicken and other meat products, and we will continue to do so.”