Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will come before the committee next Thursday morning. I welcome the suggestions from today's meeting and very pointed amendments on exactly what we want. I have been listening closely today. The independence of the membership of the board is critical. The timeframe of the appeal is an issue that has been constantly raised. A very good point was also made about the definition of force majeure and broadening it out.

Thinking back on past experience, a TB appeals board has been operating for a number of years. There are farmer representatives on it. It obviously has to do with live valuations and the process to be able to appeal them. The board has worked over a long number of years and we should look to it. We have received submissions from the four organisations before the committee. This legislation is something we have been waiting for. A commitment was given on it almost a decade ago and definitely seven or eight years ago. When it gets through pre-legislative scrutiny next week, I am fairly certain the legislation will be pushed forward very rapidly.

We have heard what the four organisations have been saying today. We will table amendments as individuals for the Minister next Thursday morning. I suggest that if any of the witnesses want to make contact with any member of the committee over the next week to frame amendments for the meeting, we would welcome it. Farmers have been waiting for this for a long time. It is essential we get it right at this opportunity.

I am dealing with a case at present where a farmer's fertiliser and feed dockets were not submitted with regard to nitrates and the single farm payment. It involves a fairly big single farm payment. He has lost two years' payments because he lost his derogation rights. He started on 1 January 2024 and his agent had to pay the two years' payments that were lost, which is putting significant pressure on that agent. The Department will not remove the multiplier effect on penalties even though the agent has paid the single farm payment for the two years in question. If this farmer has an inspection in 2024 and something is found wrong, the multiplier effect of the mistake made by his agent will come back on the farmer. I have banged my head very hard trying to get the Department to state he has started with a clean slate on 1 January 2024. I have failed to get anywhere with it. If the farmer has an inspection and whether it is a bit of farmyard manure in the wrong place or a water tank too near a watercourse and he gets another 1% or 3% penalty, it will be multiplied by the two years when his agent forgot to submit his documentation.

I have been dealing with him every day, as have the lads.

We should try to get something about force majeureinto the legislation if we can. I would welcome the thoughts of all the organisations on that. I was not trying to be awkward with Mr. Drennan but if legislation is not drafted very tightly, the Attorney General's office will tell us it is just not a runner. If we are going to put something together on force majeure, it needs to be tight and legalistic. This could be an opportunity to broaden out the terms of the force majeureprovision so that people will at least have the comfort of knowing that, if something is done they feel to be unjust, the force majeureprovision will cover their complaints on appeal. We have a week to broaden that out and get it correct. There may possibly be scope to get that into this legislation. We would welcome discussion on that over the next week. As I have said, the Minister will be here next Thursday morning. We will try to get such a framework, which is what we all want, into the legislation.

If no one else has a point to raise, I will thank everyone for coming in. As I have said, the legislation is tight but extremely important. We will be in public session next Thursday at 9.30 a.m. I am sure some of the organisations will be keeping an eye on us to make sure we are doing what we said we would do.