{"id":365091,"date":"2026-03-03T05:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/365091\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T05:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:35:11","slug":"farmer-protest-against-bord-bia-chairman-larry-murrin-ends-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/365091\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmer protest against Bord Bia chairman Larry Murrin ends \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A four-week sit-in protest by farmers against Bord Bia<\/a> chairman Larry Murrin came to a halt on Monday after directors of the food promotion body accepted proposals to break the impasse from Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Murrin remains chairman of the board but its regular meetings \u201cwill be facilitated by another current board member\u201d during a governance review sought by Heydon, Bord Bia said in a statement on Monday evening. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn this basis the protest has been stood down,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n

Five farmers were pictured leaving the Bord Bia office on Monday evening after 28 days occupying the lobby of the building in Ballsbridge, Dublin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Irish Farmers Association<\/a> (IFA) has campaigned for Murrin to resign because his food company Dawn Farms has been using Brazilian beef for some products. <\/p>\n

The Brazilian beef imports led the IFA to accuse Bord Bia of \u201cdouble standards\u201d. However, Murrin refused to stand down and was backed by Heydon, who last week said he had \u201cfull confidence\u201d in the chairman. <\/p>\n

The Minister on Monday welcomed the agreement to end the protest, saying it was \u201cnow time to come together\u201d to support Bord Bia\u2019s work. The body delivers \u201cimportant benefits for farmers and the agri-food sector\u201d at large, he said.<\/p>\n

\"BordBord Bia chairman Larry Murrin appearing before the Oireachtas agriculture committee in February. Photograph: Oireachtas TV\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

The statements from Bord Bia and Heydon followed a long meeting of the promotion body\u2019s board in Ballsbridge. <\/p>\n

In a social media post, the IFA said more than 50 tractors were driven to the office in central Dublin before the meeting to \u201cshow farmers\u2019 anger is growing the longer this situation remains unresolved\u201d. IFA president Francie Gorman had praised the occupying farmers. <\/p>\n

Gorman said the protest had been stood down \u201cuntil the review is complete\u201d and while Murrin is not chairing board meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese farmers are heroes. They have sacrificed so much for their fellow farmers as have those who have kept a 24-hour rolling protest going outside,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIFA had put a proposal to the board ten days ago that identified seven strands that should be examined and that the chair would step aside while these are being considered. This was the basis of today\u2019s outcome.\u201d <\/p>\n

Heydon last week said 140 Bord Bia staff were unable to attend the office for their work \u201cas a result of the continued occupation\u201d by IFA protesters.<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s board meeting, Bord Bia said terms of reference for the governance review had been agreed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis review will be commissioned by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and is to be completed by April 30th, 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement said the normal schedule of Bord Bia board meetings will continue during the review period. <\/p>\n

The continuation of board meetings marked a change from the original plan set out by Heydon, who last week suggested \u201cthe board would not meet again until the review is complete\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased that my proposal for an independent governance review of the board of Bord Bia has been accepted and that the ongoing protest has been stood down,\u201d Heydon said. <\/p>\n

In line with Bord Bia\u2019s statement, he noted Murrin would stay on as chairman but that board meetings during the review will facilitated by another director. <\/p>\n

\u201cBord Bia are also progressing a new Farmers Forum which will provide an opportunity for renewed engagement between farmers and Bord Bia.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A four-week sit-in protest by farmers against Bord Bia chairman Larry Murrin came to a halt on Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[119065,9,10,52,18,13,14,6,19,17,31232,11,12,15,16,30839,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-365091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bord-bia-irish-food-board","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-dublin","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-irish-farmers-association","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-martin-heydon","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116163623388399283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}