Discussions around any real or perceived conflict of interest concerning Larry Murrin’s position as Bord Bia chair while his company, Dawn Farm Foods, imported some Brazilian beef last year, were re-ignited at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Oireachtas agriculture committee.

The IFA insists that Murrin should have raised the matter with Bord Bia’s board if Murrin had considered whether it may constitute a possible conflict of interest, even if he himself had judged that it wasn’t.

“If you believe you have conflict of interest or you perceive that you may have a conflict of interest, you are obliged to declare that at the start of a board meeting,” IFA president Francie Gorman told the committee.

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“People are asked at the beginning of the meeting if there are any conflicts of interest, and they say ‘no” or ‘yes’,” Gorman said, adding that Murrin had not disclosed any imports of South American meat to Bord Bia’s board during Gorman’s tenure on the board.

Murrin had told the committee that the “genesis” of the row between the IFA and Bord Bia had centred on a “misperception of conflict of interest”.

“Our business model in Dawn Farm Foods is well known and recognised by every Government stakeholder that is out there and has been since the day the business started in business 40 years ago,” Murrin said.