Dr. Shane Whelan:

I thank the Senator for the question. I might go back a little before I answer directly on the inspections. The charter of rights is front and centre in this, as it has to be. On the Senator's point with regard to respect and dignity for the farmer, that needs to be maintained throughout but, as he said, that also applies to the Department officials.

With regard to individual appeals, from the feedback we got from the regional executives throughout the country, unfortunately, while the majority of appeals officers conduct their appeals in a good manner, it is sometimes not consistent. From the farmers’ perspective, this is alien to them in many respects and they do not want to be there. For someone to throw facts and figures at them can be demeaning and belittling, so we need to avoid that at all costs.

With regard to the farmers’ charter of rights, as the president said, negotiations have been ongoing for a number of months and that is nearing its conclusion.

In terms of inspections, the first point is that the farmer needs to be provided with adequate notification. We propose that a minimum of 48 hours would be provided to get things in order and minimise any issues in terms of not being available and so on. With regard to notification at the time of leaving after the initial inspection, the idea of the written statement is just to provide clarity to farmers as to where they potentially stand. It may not be a final provision but it is an indicative outcome of the inspection when an inspector leaves the yard. It would give farmers an opportunity to get their ducks in a row if they are potentially going down the line of an appeal. The proposal within the current charter is that verbal information would be provided but from our perspective, a written statement would be preferable.

As was said, this is alien to farmers and the Senator himself mentioned that it brings a lot of stress and emotion for farmers. Very often, if someone is in that scenario, they may not pick up the intricacies of the individual appeal. I appreciate the written notification is not the final one but at least it gives greater certainty and clarity.

As the president noted, it is important to reiterate that sentiment is important but the scope of the grounds of the independent appeal is also important. By way of context, there were 930 appeals dealt with in 2022 and only 40 went to the appeals officer or the director, and that is within the grounds that are currently proposed in this legislation. We need to be real. A consistent message across all the farm organisations was the need for independence, fairness and transparency. This is a welcome development but in terms of bolstering the need for greater independence of the whole appeals panel, it needs to be extended beyond the current provision.