'Political capital is there to be spent'... IFA leader welcomes outcome of Bord Bia dispute

“I hate the phrase 'burning political capital',” the national president of the Irish Farmers Association, Francie Gorman, said in the Ardboyne Hotel in Navan last night (Monday).

“But capital is there to be spent. Maybe we spent a good bit of it this time around – but we'll go gathering it up again. We'll be back in negotiating on behalf of farmers, stronger than ever.”

He was referring to the dispute with the Government over the chairmanship of Bord Bia which had seen IFA members stage a sit-in at the Bord Bia headquarters in Dublin for five weeks, and which had just concluded earlier on Monday with an agreement on a full review of governance at the State agency.

Farmers were angry that the chairman of the Irish beef promotion board, Larry Murrin, was himself importing Brazilan beef through his company, Dawn Farm Foods.

“I can't get over the level of support we got for it,” Gorman said. “It stands us in good stead going forward. No matter what we have to fight for, I believe we are stronger and united as an organisation, which is very important.”

The start of the annual general meeting of Meath IFA – already postponed from an earlier date due to the ongoing controversy – was delayed as members waited for the president to arrive, and he was greeted with a standing ovation as outgoing chairman, Dermot Ward, welcomed him.

While paying tribute to those who sat out the five weeks, their families, supporters and IFA staff, Gorman acknowledged that he might have done things differently from that first day he raised the issue in January, and that politicians, Bord Bia, and farmers all needed to be a bit more respectful in their language.

“But we did our business in a really credible way,” he added. “And I'm really proud in particular of our officers around the country, and ordinary members who came to all those regional meetings around the country in their hundreds, that helped put the issue back on the news agenda in the last week.”

He said that it wasn't believed they would wait it out, that the support wasn't there on the ground or for him as leader.

“That was the narrative, but the regional meetings showed otherwise,” he continued.

“When I raised it, that the chairman of Bord Bia was importing beef from Brazil; was importing an unquantifiable amount of chicken which later turned out to be substantial; and it turned out that his processing business wasn't accrredited to Bord Bia standards, yet they are telling us we should be on the bus doing x,y, and z – it wasn't good enough.”

He says he knows that farmers still don't have confidence in the chairman of Bord Bia, and that they will have to wait and see what the review turns up.

“We need to finish up with a review that makes Bord Bia fit for purpose for farmers.”

He doesn't see the governance review being completed by the target of 30th April, and says that an entire revaluation of the Origin Green programme is also necessary, while farmers themselves will have to look at the grain issue, which needs to be addressed as it was used as a stick to beat them, and “is not an easy one to answer”.

One of the five who sat in for the entire five weeks, Pat McCormack from Monaghan, also made it to the meeting in Navan on his way home, and was declared a hero by the IFA president.