Sinn Féin failed to seek a briefing from the chairman of Bord Bia before demanding he get the sack, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon told the Dáil, in the ongoing controversy over imported Brazilian beef.
In a staunch defence of Bord Bia chairman Larry Murrin, he claimed Sinn Féin “is trying to exploit the concerns of farmers for their own narrow interests”.
The party had “sought to divide, to enrage and to grandstand” calling for the removal of Murrin after it emerged Dawn Farms, the company of which he is chief executive, sourced some of its beef from Brazil, one of the Mercosur countries.
The issue arose week’s earlier when members of the Beef Plan Movement noticed signs outside Subway fast-food outlets stating the chain was provided with beef sourced from approved plants in both Europe and Brazil.
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Dawn Farms supplies beef to the chain, but the company stated that Brazilian beef accounted for less than 1 per cent of its supply and none of this was supplied to Subway stores in Ireland.
“With Sinn Féin it’s sack first, ask questions later,” Heydon said during testy exchanges in the two-hour debate.
Murrin is to appear before the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee on Thursday and the Minister said “that will be an opportunity to hear the detail of the matter”.
The Fine Gael Minister was responding in the Dáil to a Sinn Féin motion calling for Murrin’s removal. The party and farming organisations said it was a conflict of interest given his role as chairman of Bord Bia in promoting Irish agri-food.
Protests are continuing outside Bord Bia’s Dublin headquarters about Murrin and over the proposed Mercosur trade deal between the EU and South American countries.
Heydon said the issue centred on a contract between an Irish food company “which employs thousands of people here and a major international client”.
It was a contract worth hundreds of millions to Irish agriculture, extending to over 40 markets including the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
“The reality is that major international customers require proof of contingency provisions for continuity of supply in the unlikely event of disruption to the supply chain from here in Ireland or across EU supplies.”
Sinn Féin agriculture spokesman Martin Kenny said, however, that Murrin “has crossed a red line”. He imported Brazilian beef that did not meeting EU standards, he said. “If the contingency planning was to mix Brazilian beef with Irish beef “then this Government needs to start being honest with Irish farmers”.
He said a child raised in Ireland “does not have to the same level of records as a calf does that’s in Bord Bia records. That’s astonishing, but that’s the reality.”
Irish farmers comply with these rules “to maintain Ireland’s reputation as a world leading food producer.
“It is no wonder then, that farmers are angry when they hear” the Bord Bia is “importing possibly contaminated Brazilian beef”.
He said he wrote to Dawn Farms asking if they were one of three companies that imported Brazilian beef last September “that was recalled because it contained banned hormones”. He said: “They replied to the question, but they didn’t answer the question.”
The Minister had previously said 12 of the 14 Bord Bia members backed the chairman. Kenny said that was not an accurate reflection of the meeting where the IFA and ICMSA proposed his removal as chair.
“There was no vote, and it was stated that it was up to the Minister for Agriculture to remove the chairperson.”
Farmers “don’t have confidence in Larry Murrin” and they want to restore confidence in Bord Bia, Kenny said.
Labour agriculture spokesman Robert O’Donoghue said the agriculture committee was where these matters should be firstly examined”.
“We shouldn’t rush to judgment until we’ve heard directly from the chairman. That’s not avoidance, that’s due process and I believe Mr Murrin is due that process.”
The motion “risks replacing scrutiny with speculation” and “basically politicises a statutory body and undermines the very scrutiny we all claim to value”, he said.
