Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before we begin, I would like to remind attendees, particularly non-committee members, that this engagement concerns the legal framework governing discussions involving trade associations. While these matters have come to the committee's attention in the context of the ongoing issues in the beef sector, the wider issues in the sector fall within the remit of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and are outside the remit of today's engagement.

I thank the CCPC for such a comprehensive briefing document. Following our previous meeting on 17 September, we decided to invite the commission to our meeting because it had been thrown into sharp focus over the summer months with the beef crisis. While we have issued this invitation in the context of the ongoing issues in the beef sector - and, thankfully, there has been a resolution of sorts in the past two weeks and workers are back working and farmers are back farming - we wish to understand the general legal framework and what negotiations are permitted in these types of discussions between trade associations. During the summer months, I felt I did not understand the role of the CCPC and why it could not get involved in trying to secure a fair price at the time. I know the commission said it had no role in the industry talks which took place and that, as the enforcement body, it cannot provide legal advice to parties attending those talks, but I would like to tease that out. I would like us to examine exactly why the commission feels it has no role. Would it like to have a role and what would have to change if it were to have a role?

I call Senator Reilly first to put questions because he has to leave early.