On the 30th March 2026, a Beef Plan representative attended the Beef Markets Information Evening in Abbeyleix. Hosted by the Irish Farmer’s Journal, the Irish Farmer’s Association and Bord Bia, it was a very interesting event.
Beef Plan raised two questions:
One was directed to Phelim O’Neill of the Irish Farmers Journal which asked why, as we talk about the increased sale of New Zealand beef in UK markets, we aren’t discussing the fact that it is an Irish beef processor, Dawn Meats driving an unknown portion of that NZ activity. Dawn Meats purchased a 65% share in Alliance Group New Zealand for €135 million in late 2025. Alliance Group were some €85 million in debt and had stated that they would likely go out of business without Dawn Meats. Effectively, our own processors are funding the competition driving down the price of beef, using markets that Irish livestock farmers were forced to pay to build for them.
The second was directed to Joe Burke of Bord Bia and it highlighted that the Meat & Livestock Board of Bord Bia is required to have a Chairman and 12 ordinary members, 5 of which must be from farm representative organisations. We pointed out that according to Bord Bia’s own Annual reports, between the 2015 and 2024 reports, the board has not consisted of a Chair and 12 ordinary members on any occasion. Further, that for 4 out of the 5 most recent years, it did not have 5 farm rep seats filled. Given that Minister Heydon had told the ICSA in February that he had no intention of expanding the list of organisations entitled to fill those seats, it is astonishing that they would be left empty with no comment at all.
The answers were predictably watery and unsatisfying. But as these are critical issues directly affecting Irish farmers, it might have been hoped that the agricultural media would do some follow up. Instead we get crickets. We have to ask why?
More recent developments show that while objections to Larry Murrin as Chair of the Bord Bia board rumble on, the Chair of Alliance Group New Zealand, Tom Moran has been installed as the Chair of farming’s latest quango. Dramatic reform is desperately needed.
In March, Nadaline Webster published a book titled The Bord Bia Breakdown exploring the links between Bord Bia, the beef processors and the government from the days of the Beef Tribunal up to the protests. The Beef Plan Movement is hosting an open webinar on Thursday, 25th June at 8pm to highlight the issues raised in the book and also to address more recent issues that have come to light. As we build a proposal for reforms needed or what system should replace the current one, we believe that every farmer has the right to be informed and to put forward ideas about what we do about the circumstances we find ourselves in.
We hope you will join us – please save the link below!