Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My recollection of the Minister's speech in the Dáil was that the statutory instrument as it is currently constituted does not reflect a fair penalty points system and there needed to be further consultation with the industry to try to come together. As he will be aware, there was a letter from the industry. When there was this hiatus between ministerial appointments and the Taoiseach signed this statutory instrument at, I assume, the request of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s senior officials, there was correspondence from the four major producer organisations in the State at that time, outlining their profound concerns about what had happened and that there needed to be changes. Nothing was done about those profound concerns. No changes were made to the statutory instrument at that time and this legislation reflects that.