Agriculture Industry
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

On the agrifood sector, the regulator has stated it does not have enough powers and resources, and this needs to be brought up to speed. As I said, confidence has been lost in the system. The Minister may say this is a pivot but it is all part of the same issue. The farming community has lost confidence in the system because it is being forced to keep standards, and it is quite welcome that they keep to the standards Bord Bia sets and the standards Europe sets in terms of food safety and all those things. They are all in place. Yet they see the people at the top, who are in charge of marketing Irish beef, importing Brazilian beef at the same. It is just untenable that this man can stay in that position. The Minister knows this and the writing is on the wall. Everybody knows it. The farmers are not protesting because they want to. They should be at home. Their cows are calving at this time of the year and they do not want to be up here protesting. They want the Minister to do the right thing by the sector. That is the problem here. It is not a witch hunt against this person.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29