Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for the presentations. The consultation is under way. What happens on 30 November, as I understand it, is the Department would have to seek a derogation that it would not go ahead with this. From the consultation, there is no signal there is an intention by the Department not to go ahead with this. I do not want to panic people. It would have to be actively trying to move away from this scheme before 30 November. I doubt there is a worry on that front. It is quite clear the protection comes into place, or the possibility of applying comes in, from 1 December 2025, so we have time to get this right.

What this seems to do is give legal protection against direct or indirect commercial use that will weaken the GI, imitation and false claims. That is what it protects. It is not a development strategy as such. Do we have challenges of this nature in the case of Donegal tweed and Connemara marble? The other thing I notice in the directive is if a body that is outside the geographical area has been operating for five years, it has a legitimate right to object within the process. Where are we with our potential GIs? Are there are a lot of imitators out there? Are they so long in business they would have established rights to object to this process? It seems we need to complement GI with something else. It is not a development strategy in its own right. It is simply a legal protection whereby someone could go to court and challenge someone introducing alternative schemes. I would like to hear a little more about how important this is to the long-term development. I see it as just one element of a bigger strategy.

On Waterford specifically, it says the application must be made as a producer or producer group. Is there a producer group that is in a position to apply? As Mr. O'Connor described it, this Finnish company seems to be trading for some time. In an ideal world we might have the sort of arrangement he described where there would be some form of partnership developed and the Waterford sector would develop in tandem with this international player. Is there a route to that we could try to explore or design?