Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Much was made during the year of the difficulties in the beef industry and nobody would disagree with this. As a result of the difficulties, round-table discussions were established and to a certain extent these have been successful and need to be built on. Having all the stakeholders involved around the table is essential. There needs to be transparency in the area and this will be very important. A recommendation from the round-table discussions was the establishment of producer groups, which Deputy Doyle mentioned. These will be essential to give farmers buying power, which is very important.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Bill is another aspect to the motion. This time last year the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine did much work in this regard and discovered a number of anomalies. It published a report which recommended a statutory code of conduct. At the time I favoured this, but a Bill was passed in the summer which means regulations will be introduced and these will have more teeth. I encourage the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, to introduce these regulations as soon as possible to ensure we have fairness in the system. I welcome the comments made last week in this regard by the European Commissioner-designate, Mr. Hogan. I congratulate him and wish him well. I have no doubt he will carry the Irish flag high throughout Europe and unlike Fianna Fáil in the past, which refused to take up a particular position-----

See this speech in context