State Bodies
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

The reason we are talking about the end of April – which is both a very tight timeline and ambitious – is because it is something I want to bring to a conclusion. There needs to be a lot of honesty in the debate. I agree with Deputy Kenny that we need to reflect on everyone’s fiduciary duties when they sign up to a State board.
A great deal of responsibility comes with that, and that applies to every member of a board, not just the chairperson.
On the points about farmer representation and the farmer point of view, that will be enhanced by the establishment of the farmers' forum that I proposed at the five-hour stakeholder meeting on 13 February. The farmers' forum will provide a structured forum for two-way feedback because it is just as important that Bord Bia can feed back to farmers. It will also explain the market requirements, why quality assurance processes require certain amounts of information, how that is monetised and how it allows us to have premiumisation of their produce in the end. That is a really important part of this. We will all be strengthened from that greater collaboration.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-19