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

I thank the Minister and his officials for being here. I also thank the Minister for his opening statement. Most of the questions have been asked, especially around some of the concerns that were raised by the farm organisations last week. The Minister has probably seen it, but it is important he has heard what those organisations are saying on this. They raised concerns about the independence of the chair, the timeframe and ensuring that where oral hearings are remote that be an offering and not definitely in place. In other words, there should be an option. All that has been discussed, to be fair.

Without going over old ground, I raise the makeup of the panel itself, on which there was quite a lot of debate and discussion last week as well. The Minister says the ordinary members of the panel will be appointed and they will be people who have experience relevant to the functions of the panel. Will he elaborate on what that would look like? The farm organisations that were here were of the opinion a farm representative should be on the panel. To be fair, they also said it needed to be independent and there should not be anyone from the Department, so it has to be independent all across the way. Could there be the possibility of someone with some kind of a farming background? What does the Minister see regarding the makeup in particular?