A lot has happened and nothing has happened since last week in the Larry Murrin/IFA standoff.

IFA members continue to occupy the offices of the Bord Bia headquarters on Pembroke Road.

The farmers involved have shown remarkable resilience to stay put. I spoke with a number of them this week and they are showing no signs of going anywhere until the issue is resolved, which they say can only hapen if Murrin resigns.

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All have farms and families at home to look after, and they are not taking the decision lightly to stay there. There is currently no sign of that happening, and Murrin’s appearance last Thursday in front of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture (JOC) was both assured and confident.

The spotlight now appears to be headed towards the board of Bord Bia and how they navigate the next steps in the ongoing debacle.

The IFA has issued a missive to Bord Bia and Murrin, demanding that he answer 10 questions. Among them is a question around why he said that he considered whether he had any conflicts of interest as chair and then decided himself that he wasn’t conflicted, which the IFA say wasn’t for him to decide.

The board of directors have the ultimate responsibility for addressing these questions and restoring confidence in Bord Bia as part of fulfilling its fiduciary duties to the organisation and its stakeholders

The Sinn Féin motion of no confidence on Wednesday is expected to be defeated with the Government applying party whips to vote down the motion, but even if it was carried it wouldn’t make any material difference to the situation.

Anger

There is still a huge sense of anger and frustration on the ground, and the issue dominated discussion at IFA meetings in Laois, Kildare and Louth in the last few days.

I attended the Kerry IFA AGM on Tuesday night where the issue was front and centre, with all questions around Bord Bia.

Government parties, along with local Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Michael Healy-Rae, came in for criticism from farmers attending the meeting.

A number of farmers indicated from the floor that they have postponed their quality assurance inspections until the issue is resolved.

This isn’t good for the industry and could do long-lasting damage to some of our markets if large numbers of farmers opt out of inspections.

I understand that private meetings have taken place between the IFA and both the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon this week, but no progress was made.

Both are under political pressure from backbench TDs and county councillors to find a solution.

No confidence

Three county councils in Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford have this week passed motions of no confidence in Murrin.

This fiasco has broken relationships between key players in our industry – some would say that irreparable damage has been done, with any future relationship looking very different from what it did six months ago.

There’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment about how this will play out, but one thing that is certain is that this issue will pass and when it does, everybody involved will have to sit down around a table again for the good of Irish agriculture.

The bigger picture needs to be front and centre in any actions in the next few days.