Cavan farmer reflects on his part in protest

THE so-called 'Bord Bia Five' are back on their farms this week after a 28-day protest at the Dublin HQ of the national food agency ended in what the IFA are claimking as a victory.

Two of the five IFA members who took part in the sit-in protest from February 3, included Richard Moeran from Cavan and Patrick McCormick from Monaghan.

The protest called for the removal of Larry Murrin as chair of Bord Bia after it emerged his company, Dawn Farm Foods used imported beef and poultry in its products. Dawn Farm Foods have said the company sourced less than one per cent of its beef from Brazil last year.

Late Monday evening, Bord Bia agreed to an independent expert-led governance review into its operations. Larry Murrin will step aside from chairing meetings until the review is concluded but, will remain chair of Bord Bia.

In a statement, Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon said: “Larry Murrin will remain as chair of Bord Bia and as agreed by the board and the chair in the interests of moving forward, during the period of the review scheduled board meetings will be facilitated by another current board member.”

Back on the ranch

For 28 days Richard Moeran's wife, Jackie, and his two adult children, Ken and Steph, kept the home fires burning at their sheep, beef, tillage and crops farm at Mountnugent. The couple also run a hospitality business on their farm.

“The first week was very difficult for Jackie,” Richard acknowledges. “There was no planning for this so she was just left to juggle all the balls.”

Describing the 28-day protest at the Bord Bia offices as “emotional” but “absolutely worth it” the farmer said, “We aimed for the bullseye, we hit the ring around it but at the start of this we also set the bar very high.”

The “bullseye” he said would have been Larry Murrin's removal entirely from the agency’s board.

“It’s still an exceptional achievement,” he adds. “Bord Bia and the government now recognise the issues.”

When asked what the lowest point in the past month was for him, Richard Moeran said: “Receiving phone calls from various politicians telling us we were wasting our time. I felt we got no support from politicians.”

Asked why he believed Bord Bia, the government and Larry Murrin held out for so long, Mr Moeran said: “I think they didn’t anticipate the level of support from the IFA. We had farmers outside the offices as well as inside 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“I also think Mr Murrin, who I believe is a very decent man, didn’t read the room correctly at the start. I think if he knew a month ago how this would play out that things would’ve been different. At the start Mr Murrin got the backing of Bord Bia and the government and he might have thought: ‘spring is coming, lambing is about to start’ and I believe, and it’s only my opinion, that he thought this was an emotional protest not a real one.”

Disconnect

Mr Moeran praised Bord Bia CEO, Jim O’Toole, for meeting the five protestors “face to face and eye to eye” in the reception of his offices.

“Imagine inviting Jim O’Toole to a meeting in his lobby,” Richard Moeran said. “But, fair play to him he met us, and he listened to us.”

The farmer said, however, that the conversation with Mr O’Toole made him realise the “disconnect” between “farmers on the ground and the working family farm structure and the corporate side of Bord Bia.”

“There are wonderful people in Bord Bia but there is also a disconnect,” Richard Moeran maintains.