Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has said the occupation of Bord Bia's building in Dublin city by farmer representatives is "not in farmers' best interests".

Farmers, led by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) have been staging a protest outside the building since last week in a controversy surrounding the chair of Bord Bia.

Farmer representatives want Larry Murrin to resign from his position as chair, or be removed by the agriculture minister, after it came to light that his company Dawn Farms sources a small percentage of Brazilian beef in order to ensure the company can fulfil multi-million euro supply chain contracts.

Farmers feel that such a business position is at odds with being chair of a government-funded body tasked with promoting only Irish produce.

The majority of the board of Bord Bia have given Murrin their full support, as have Tánaiste Simon Harris, Minister Heydon and business entities such as IBEC.

Speaking this evening to Agriland, Minister Heydon said: “Occupying and blocking a place of work is never acceptable.

"Bord Bia represent the entire Irish food and drink Industry in ireland which is worth over €21 billion to our farmers and Irish food companies.

"Blocking the building impacts all of the work Bord Bia [carries] out and is not in farmers' best interests.

"The concerns being expressed in relation to the operation of Bord Bia, do need to be viewed in the overall context of our ongoing efforts to manage the response to the recent outbreak of bluetongue virus in cattle in Ireland and negotiating the next CAP[ Common Agricultural Policy] in which I attended critical meetings on this today with {European] Commissioner’s Hansen and Serafin."

The agriculture minister has called on the IFA to "de-escalate" its latest action.

"In a week where matters will be discussed in the Oireachtas, including an appearance by the chair of Bord Bia at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture this Thursday, I call on the IFA to deescalate this latest action and allow their members the space to listen to the details of this matter be debated in the Oireachtas over the course of this week.," Minister Heydon said.