Bord Bia tries to starve protesting farmers into submission
AN effort by Bord Bia ‘to starve out’ the protesting IFA members at its head office in Dublin over the weekend has only resulted in a major escalation of the bitter dispute.
National IFA Farm Family Chair, Teresa Roche, from Abbey, Loughrea, told the Connacht Tribune, that food deliveries to six IFA members ‘sitting in’ at the Bord Bia office – including herself – had been ‘stopped’ for 36-hours in an effort to get them out of the building.
“As well as preventing the food deliveries to us, they also cut off the power points, in an effort to stop us from charging our mobile phones.
“It was 10pm on Saturday night before food was again allowed in and we now have one power point back in operation,” said Teresa Roche.
She said that the food and power ‘cut-offs’ had further escalated an already bad situation and had made the IFA and farmers’ protest even more determined to continue and succeed.
“The position of Bord Bia Chair, Larry Murrin is completely untenable. How can someone in his position of promoting top-class and safe Irish food, be involved in the importation of Brazilian beef and poultry.
“Every week of every year, Irish farmers undertake to produce world-class quality food of the highest standards and under the strictest of veterinary and quality controls, while at the same time the Chair of Bord Bia, heads a company, which imports beef and poultry from a country where these standards do not exist,” Teresa Roche told the Connacht Tribune.
She said that given the unwillingness of the Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon, to ‘show leadership and to take action on the issue’, it now seemed likely that the next move would have to come from the Government leadership duo of Tánaiste, Simon Harris and Taoiseach, Micheál Martin.
“We are just over a month away from St. Patrick’s Day when all things Irish – and especially our world-class food produce – should be taking a centre-stage role,” she said.
“Instead of that, we have the Chair of Bord Bia refusing to resign from his position, at a time when his company is importing thousands of tonnes of Brazilian chicken and beef into Ireland.”
Caption: National IFA Farm Family Chair Teresa Roche from Abbey, Loughrea [second from left] pictured alongside Adrian Gallagher, Donegal; Richard Moeran, Cavan; Patrick McCormack, Monaghan, IFA National Treasurer; and Christine Friel, Donegal; on Monday night last inside the Bord Bia HQ in Ballsbridge, Dublin, as the IFA’s sit-in protest continues into its second week. Photo: Roy O’Brien
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