The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has heard that farmers struggling with current weather conditions have an option to defer Bord Bia audits.
The comments came from the newly appointed chair designate of Bord Bia, Larry Murrin, who attended the committee’s meeting this week to discuss his strategic priorities for the Irish food board.
A co-founder and chief executive of Dawn Farms, the Meath native has served on the Consumer Foods Board of Bord Bia since its inception.
He was also a past president of IBEC and was chair of Food and Drink Industry Ireland (FDII) for 12 years.
Bord Bia
Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard told Larry Murrin that pressures on farms are “really significant” at the moment as a result of fodder issues and pressure on slurry capacity.
“Farmers are just struggling, it’s been six months of winter to say the very least and they really are feeling it,” he said.
The senator said that farmers could benefit from a short extension for their quality assurance (QA) certification rather than being faced with an audit in the current situation.
“I think there’s an opportunity here for Bord Bia to look at maybe extending it for a month, giving people a breather because they are under exceptional pressures,” Lombard added.
In response, the Bord Bia chair designate said that “one can only have sympathy for all primary producers”.
“The country is literally under water,” Murrin told the committee.
He said that Bord Bia has activated a helpline for farmers “since the crisis has deepened”.
Murrin also said that there is scope for farmers to postpone impending Bord Bia audits due to the impact of the adverse weather.
“A farmer can defer an audit that might be in the programme if the sheer circumstances that he is faced with on his enterprise demands that and Bord Bia will be very sympathetic to that,” Murrin said.
He added that the weather will continue to be a “very topical issue” for both the executive and board of Bord Bia “for some time”.