Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses have said they are confident the regulator will have the powers it needs. I obviously have to mention competition and anticompetitive practices. At every stage of the legislation, we sought to include an amendment to provide for such powers. Those powers do not exist in the first instance. The Minister was very much minded to give the regulator, as a new office, a chance and to look at giving it additional powers later, if needed. That is fair enough and the regulator should be given a chance but, on that element and given that much of this was driven by and stemmed from factory prices for beef and so on - I appreciate the campaign started long before that but it was a real turning point in respect of all of this - is the office concerned it does not have such powers or is it happy to take a wait and see approach? The CCPC exists but the issues are still there. Deputy Fitzmaurice used the term "cartel". Any of us would be lying if we said some farmers did not get the impression that a cartel does exist and there are anticompetitive practices in the industry. That is much of the reason farmers wanted transparency and wanted this office in the first instance. What are the witnesses' views on the fact the regulator does not have those powers?