Offaly farmers protest in Dublin outside Bord Bia's headquarters

IFA President Francie Gorman said he had responded to correspondence received from Minister Martin Heydon on Monday evening.

In the correspondence, the Minister encouraged IFA to take up an offer from the Chair of Bord Bia to attend an IFA Council meeting to give a ‘briefing’ on his company’s usage of Brazilian beef.

“I advised the Minister that I had declined this offer at the Board meeting last Thursday. The National Council has a firm view that the Bord Bia Chairman should step down. This is the position and it won’t change,” he said.

“In our reply, I suggested that the Minister himself should engage with Larry Murrin to explain that Bord Bia cannot operate without farmers,” he said.

I also requested that the Minister should meet the board of Bord Bia without the Chair to discuss the current situation.

READ NEXT: Positive return to members at AGM of leading credit union in Offaly

“At the board meeting last week, no vote was taken. I made a proposal that the Chair be removed and this was seconded by the ICMSA President Denis Drennan. However, no vote was taken and no counter proposal was made or seconded,” he said.

“In my view the statement issued by the Bord Bia CEO immediately after the meeting, which was subsequently withdrawn and amended, did not fully reflect the nuances of what was said at the meeting,” he said.

“A lot has happened since the last board meeting. Quality Assurance meetings have been called off; protests mounted outside Bord Bia; and TDs from Government and opposition parties are expressing no confidence in the Chair. The Minister and the Board cannot ignore how the situation has developed,” he said.

“I think the Minister needs to sit down with the Board members and the Chair, separately, to resolve this matter before any more damage is done to Bord Bia,” he said.

READ NEXT: Student achievers honoured at Offaly secondary school's annual awards night