The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has said that the non-compliant spending of €1.2m identified in Bord Bia’s 2025 accounts will further undermine farmer confidence in Bord Bia and in its chair Larry Murrin.
It said that Bord Bia’s attempts to downplay this non-compliant expenditure “won't wash with farmers”.
IFA president Francie Gorman, who sits on the Bord Bia board, said: "This issue should have been addressed by the independent governance review into Bord Bia, as the Minister was aware of it.
“As IFA pointed out at the time, this review avoided the key issues," he said.
ICMSA
The president of Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) and member of the board of Bord Bia, Denis Drennan, said that the spend was a matter for the executives at Bord Bia and that he was confident that an explanation would be forthcoming at the next board meeting.
“Obviously day-to-day spending of this kind is a matter for the management team and we’d expect a detailed account covering all non-compliant payments made over the period in question,” Drennan told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Bord Bia’s financial statements for 2025, published this week, said that the State agency had identified €1.2m of expenditure which was “incurred without the operation of a competitive tendering procedure in accordance with procurement guidelines”.
There was no breakdown of where the non-complaint spending occurred in the statements.
The level of non-compliant spending was down 50% on 2024 levels, when Bord Bia recorded a non-compliant spend of €2.6m.
Authorised spending
A Bord Bia spokesperson said the agency identified €1.2m in non-compliant procurement in 2025, representing 2.1% of its total supplier expenditure of €56m, and that it had disclosed this in its annual report as required.
“All of the expenditure was authorised and incurred for legitimate business purposes and represented value for money.
“The ‘non-compliant’ cases arose where, for example, contracts expired before new procurement arrangements were completed, purchases made by different teams cumulatively exceeded the relevant tender threshold, or required documentation was not fully completed at the time of expenditure.
“Bord Bia takes its public procurement obligations seriously and has addressed each case through contract updates and the completion of required documentation. It has also strengthened supplier-spend monitoring, contract management and staff guidance to improve compliance across the organisation,” the spokesperson said.
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