Bord Bia: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

This has been a heated debate, and that is fine. We debate matters robustly in order to make progress, so let us make a little of progress. There are a couple of things that are not disputed. Beef from Brazil has a lot of problems. The system in Brazil is different. The Irish Government opposed the Mercosur deal. We can debate whether it was as wholehearted in doing so as we would have liked, but it did oppose the deal because it recognised - and we take its word for this - that the beef coming from Brazil does not meet the standards that European consumers should expect. There is no dispute about that.
The head of Bord Bia imported Brazilian beef that does not meet these standards. That is not in dispute either. He is not coming here tomorrow to tell us whether or not he imported Brazilian beef. We know he did so. We know he has used it as part of his contingency planning, as the Minister outlined. If the contingency planning for the marketing of Irish beef is to mix Brazilian beef in with it, then the Government needs to start being honest with Irish farmers. Is that what the Minister is saying? The Minister seems to have said that we are not listening to the common-sense explanation as to why some Brazilian beef would have to be used in order to gain access to particular markets. That is a dangerous Rubicon to cross. That is the reality. There is a red line that Larry Murrin has crossed. As the chair of Bord Bia, the organisation charged with marketing Irish food, drink and horticulture of the finest quality to which the quality assurance mark is attached and with whose standards Irish farmers have to comply, it is unacceptable that he would also run a company that is buying, processing and selling Brazilian beef, which is possibly contaminated, mixed with Irish beef.
If the Minister does not understand the huge impact of this when it comes to the farmers of this country and to consumers across Europe and around the world, he does not understand the issue we are dealing with. We on this side of the House are not looking for a head or trying to make political capital; we are looking at reality. The reality is that the person in charge of marketing Irish food cannot also be selling-----

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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