People Before Profit Supports protests against Bord Bia Chair
People Before Profit candidate for the Galway West By-Election Denman Rooke has expressed support for Irish farmers protesting Bord Bia Chair Larry Murrin. The farmers occupied Bord Bia’s offices in Dublin, protested outside Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon’s office, and issued a detailed list of 10 questions for Mr Murrin and the agency to answer following his appearance before the Joint Oireachtas Committee.
Rooke said that “Murrin’s role as chair at the semi-state agency is to champion Irish producers and Irish produce. Yet he has been importing beef and poultry from Brazil. This is terrible for Irish farmers, Irish consumers, the environment, and indeed Irish politics”.
He went on to explain that “Murrin’s company Dawn Farm Foods’ (DFF) invested €30 million in a joint-venture with Minerva Sao Paulo, which saw the building of a 10,000 square metre state-of-the-art cooked meats processing facility. Not only did this incentivise deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, but Murrin will have known that Brazil’s food quality standards are notoriously poor, especially compared to Ireland’s admirably high standards. So Murrin has undermined Irish farmers, and compromised the food chain in Ireland.”
Rooke continued, “yet to add insult to injury, Murrin refuses to disclose precisely how much sub-standard beef and poultry he has imported into Ireland, and is refusing to step down from his Bord Bia role.”
“Murrin’s deceptive behaviour and lack of accountability are symptomatic of an ideological and moral void at the heart of the political establishment,” emphasised Rooke. “Micheal Martin and Hildegaarde Naughton have come out making condemnatory statements about the protestors, as opposed to Murrin, because they believe that Murrin’s right to profit trumps everyone else’s right to fairness, honesty and accountability .”
Rooke concluded by saying “It’s time for a new politics, one that puts people, their health, and their community, before profit, greed, and power. That’s the politics I live by, and it’s what I would bring to the Council.”