Bord Bia: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (SF), Donegal

The Minister and the Ministers of State know what has to be done here. Bord Bia is the body tasked with marketing our beef across the world and with overseeing the standards in that regard of all the farmers across the State. My colleague Deputy Martin Kenny referred to the quality assurance scheme. I think there are 66 questions on the survey. Basically, farmers are driven mad with paperwork. That is why we have a world-class standard in beef. In what the Minister has attempted to do in recent days he has not listened to the primary producers. All of the farming organisations are clear that Larry Murrin has to go. They have no confidence in him. Rather than listen to them the Government has picked fights with them. They are the primary producers. They produce the food. The Government is giving credit to Larry Murrin for that quality of beef and that world-class standard around the world but they produced it. The Government has just ignored them and dismissed them to the point now that they have to have a sit-in protest and occupy the Bord Bia office. How much reputational damage has the Government done to Bord Bia at this stage?
This all follows on from the way the Government dealt with Mercosur. Micheál Martin was out in China but he is still not committing to opposing Mercosur. It is outrageous. We have beef that is held to very different standards from what we have to face. I will say it again: the Government has driven our farmers mad with paperwork and it has put the highest demands on farmers with the highest environmental and animal welfare standards in the world, and then it will have our beef competing with very different standards. Micheál Martin dithered. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, took his stand. Other backbenchers in Fianna Fáil took their stands. Finally the Government opposed it but it could have formed a blocking minority and it could have done more around that. This issue we are discussing now continues on from that. I believe that the Minister's refusal to ask Larry Murrin to step aside in the interests of our industry and the interests of fairness is a continuance of his lack of stomach to fight for and stand up for our farmers, and to stand up for the standards that we have. This is why these farmers are making the stand. This is why these farming organisations are uniting. Tonight is the Minister's chance to listen and to speak to them. It will be another week before the vote. The Minister will have plenty of time to think. Larry Murrin will be before the committee tomorrow. The Minister has a week to do the right thing. It is far too late but he needs to do it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04