It would be hard to imagine Ibec’s Danny McCoy going in front of a TV camera and demanding the Government sack the head of a semi-State organisation.
But that’s what the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) did last month.
IFA president Francie Gorman called on Government to remove Larry Murrin as Bord Bia chairman after it was revealed his company Dawn Farms had imported a small amount of Brazilian beef.
For the IFA, the State’s second most powerful lobby group behind employers’ group Ibec, it was a flex – but one that seems to have backfired.
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A basic lesson of lobbying is to know when and where to push your agenda.
The IFA’s campaign to have Murrin sacked has incensed Government ministers – Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon in particular – who see it as a challenge to their authority.
And they’ve been out to bat for farmers twice in recent months, expending significant political capital and taking serious flak in the process.
The Government fought long and hard to have the State’s nitrates derogation (allowing farmers to spread higher levels of fertiliser on their land) extended for three years – a big concession for the industry here.
It also opposed the EU-Mercosur trade deal, seemingly against the interests of the wider economy, drawing sharp criticism from economists and winning it few friends in Europe.
It’s not obvious that the Mercosur deal is even contrary to the interests of Irish farming given the minimal amount of beef from South America being allowed in, and with the potential for Ireland to expand dairy exports to the region.
The IFA’s attempt to score a hat-trick of lobbying coups in trying to oust Murrin is seen as overreach.
One minister described it as a direct attack on Government authority, while suggesting the IFA had backed itself into a corner.
An industry insider described it as the IFA’s “head-on-a-plate melodrama”.
Undaunted, the farmers’ lobby has dug in, maintaining a protest outside Bord Bia’s Dublin headquarters while calling on backbench Government TDs to reject the whip and vote for an Opposition motion to oust Murrin. The Sinn Féin motion was defeated on Wednesday night.
Tánaiste Simon Harris accused Sinn Féin of looking for a head and vowed they would not get one – a reflection of the Government’s hardened stance.
[ Beyond time for Bord Bia row to be resolved, Barry Cowen saysOpens in new window ]
The optics of having the chairman of Bord Bia, the State agency responsible for promoting Irish food, importing beef from Brazil are not great. The amount of beef his firm sourced from Brazil, however, represents less than 1 per cent of its supply chain. A conflict of interest, yes, but a relatively minor one.
More importantly, he hasn’t broken any law.
Murrin (68) is an industry veteran and well regarded in farming circles here. He doesn’t take a salary for his Bord Bia role and, judging from his recent performance at the Oireachtas Agricultural Committee, remains sharp.
He told the committee his company was a major customer of the Irish beef industry, while noting that security of supply agreements with big international customers require his business to have back-up provisions for food crises, disease outbreaks and supply issues.
“I’m not a champion for Brazil and I want to make that perfectly clear today, but Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world today and our global customers look at commodity markets globally, and I have to be able to demonstrate as part of our supply-chain security arrangements that this country can access those raw materials if it needs to,” he said.
Murrin’s Dawn Farms has an €850 million contract to supply cooked meats to Subway’s 4,000-plus restaurants in Europe. His point is that he has to show an ability to source beef from another jurisdiction in case of a crisis like another foot-and-month outbreak.
The IFA’s aggressive stance perhaps reflects two things: the dominance of the beef lobby within the organisation and a disquiet with Bord Bia itself.
The agency, formerly the Irish Food Board, was originally set up as a sales body but has more recently taken on the role of sustainability policeman.
Bord Bia’s Quality Assurance and Origin Green programmes are viewed by some in the sector as overly onerous. The agency insists strong sustainability protocols are key to maintaining Ireland’s reputation as a quality food exporter and are insisted upon by foreign customers.
Whatever the reasons, the IFA has now got itself wedged between an angry Government and a fight it can’t win.
It might do well to heed former UK Labour grandee Denis Healey’s first law on holes: when you are in one, stop digging.
