Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
============================================================

Conor D. McGuinness (SF), Waterford

Farmers feel undermined, ignored and taken for granted. They are angry – in fact, they are livid – because the importation of Brazilian beef represents not only an existential threat to their livelihoods but the way Brazilian beef is produced runs completely contrary to the standards to which they are held. The Government’s late-in-the-day opposition and lukewarm approach to Mercosur exposed its real attitude to it. The regulations that Irish farmers must adhere to ensure our beef and dairy products are the best in the world, and the fact that Bord Bia benefits directly from this and promotes this message around the world, while at the same time the chair, Larry Murrin, imports Brazilian beef through his private company has destroyed the confidence farmers have in Bord Bia. It has done serious damage to the confidence they have in this Government or whatever is left of it. His evasiveness in his answers at the committee last week might have seemed like a masterclass to people who observe this particular bubble but I think that farmers who are used to speaking plainly and listening saw it for what it was. Will the Taoiseach apply the Whip to his Fianna Fáil councillors who are being lobbied at the moment by the IFA and the ICSA, like in Waterford and Kilmacthomas this evening where the IFA calls councillors in to meet them?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10