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State agency responsible for promoting Irish food at the highest international standards, is also the director of a company that is importing Brazilian beef. Another fact is that Brazilian beef had to be recalled just in the past months from Irish shelves. Another fact is that Brazilian beef … hormones that are banned in the European Union. The other fact is the chair of that company, who acknowledges that his company imports Brazilian beef for the Irish market, is the chair appointed by the Government as head of Bord Bia. The issue here is there

food, Irish beef and Irish farming is also the chief executive of Dawn Farm Foods, a company that has confirmed that it sources Brazilian beef for the Irish market. That fact alone should have set alarm bells ringing across government. Instead, we have seen evasion, minimisation … importing beef from Brazil, a sector repeatedly associated across Europe with food safety scares, traceability failures, animal welfare concerns and weak regulatory oversight? Brazilian beef has already had to be recalled from Irish supermarket shelves. It has been the subject of sustained and serious concern for years around

Sunday, people are waking up to the Government’s false promises. Last week, the Food Safety Authority issued a recall of Brazilian beef on sale in Ireland – beef containing banned cancer-linked hormones. That recall was not a joke. The meat was tested last October and had long … labelling. It is a well-known brand, the so-called “Finders of Fine Foods”. Instead of using Irish beef, it chooses Brazilian beef, produced to standards decades behind our own. You would need a magnifying glass to read the country of origin on the back of the product

restore confidence in the system because it has broken down. We still do not know the names of the three companies that imported Brazilian beef earlier this year. Has the Agri-Food Regulator told the Minister the names of these three companies? When are we going to find … Dawn Foods one of these three companies? I ask because we have a situation where the head of Bord Bia is also importing Brazilian beef. He simply has to go, yet the Minister seems to be absolutely determined to protect the well-connected rather to protect the sector

things. They are all in place. Yet they see the people at the top, who are in charge of marketing Irish beef, importing Brazilian beef at the same. It is just untenable that this man can stay in that position. The Minister knows this and the writing

dispute. What is in dispute is that the chairperson of a board charged with marketing Irish food is importing Brazilian beef. It is untenable for him to remain in his position. Everyone knows that. The Minister is trying to suggest the that IFA is to blame. Come

study notes that the implementation of the agreement does not in any way lower EU standards regarding market access for Mercosur, including on beef. The EU's SPS standards are amongst the highest in the world and are non-negotiable. The Government is firmly of the view that … benefit of European consumers. This is a matter I raised directly with the Commissioner, Mr. Várhelyi, following the recent recall of Brazilian beef and the need for Europe to increase the number of inspections, both in third countries and at our border control posts, which was agreed

undermines it. Farmers are having to compete with food produced to lower standards from other countries. The importation of 99,000 tonnes of beef and 180,000 tonnes of chicken, produced at lower environmental and animal health standards, will cause market distortion. We all know what that means … have prescriptions for what they give to cattle. Here we have double standards. What is the justification for this? The revelations recently that Brazilian beef with banned hormones entered the Irish food chain are now being investigated by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. That should

beef sector in particular. There is an economic impact of somewhere between €44 million and €55 million a year on a beef sector worth over €3 billion. On the environmental element, our farmers have been on a journey and a trajectory of increased ambition around environmental sustainability, while … doing business. We then chase the higher markets to get better value for that product. That is why we do not compete with Brazilian beef abroad. We are in the higher value markets, where we get a better return. We are not in the commodity market in that

farming organisation did not import Brazilian beef

heart of it is a clear and undeniable conflict of interest. The chair of Bord Bia is head of a company that imports Brazilian beef that is produced to lower standards and is the subject of weaker safety requirements. At the same time, he is presiding over

Brazilian beef

promoting Irish food and I understand he is paid just under €200,000 to do it. Instead of that, he is actually importing Brazilian beef. This is a conflict of interest and the fact that the Government’s judgment does not understand that shows it is compromised

Bord Bia. His position is untenable. There is a massive conflict of interests with him remaining in post, particularly as his company imports Brazilian beef into the Irish market. This is totally in conflict with the role of Bord Bia, which is to promote Irish food, including Irish

position of Larry Murrin as chairman of Bord Bia is totally untenable. He has direct involvement in the importation of substandard Brazilian beef into Ireland. No Irish food processor should be importing this product into Ireland, but the fact that the chair of Bord Bia, an organisation that

morning regarding Bord Bia's chair, Larry Murrin, whose position I now believe to be completely untenable given that his company was importing Brazilian beef. I hope he will act on my letter. The childcare system is in crisis

Brazilian beef okay

there with the Taoiseach. Maybe it is just me, but I do not think a chair of Bord Bia whose company was importing Brazilian beef stands on credible ground. That is a view that I hold and I know that will be held by many farmers and people

weekend where we see that Larry Murrin, the chair of Bord Bia, is also the CEO of a company that was providing Brazilian beef. It is simply incompatible with his role in the promotion of Irish food products to remain in that position. That is the first point

that the Irish Government has, on behalf of its people, voted against the Mercosur trade deal. This deal will open the floodgates to Brazilian beef produced to standards far below what we demand here and contaminated with banned growth hormones and antibiotics, as exposed by the Irish Farmers

should be reducing our consumption of beef and dairy because all red meat, even when it is organic, has carcinogenic properties. I take on board what my colleagues before me said with regard to whether we could expect the Brazilian product to be any better. It is going

Ireland and abroad as Irish beef is in fact Irish beef only as per label and is not contaminated or diluted with Brazilian beef or beef from other countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6891/26

Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the recent revelations regarding an organisation (detail supplied) that sources Brazilian beef as a raw material for the products it supplies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7002/26