Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 29 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Ms Angela Robinson:

That is a fixed fee. I ask Mr. Kinsella to correct me if I am wrong, but it is at the discretion of the enforcement authority to decide whether it wants to go down that route rather than initiate legal proceedings. Once it issues that fixed penalty notice and if that is paid, the legal proceedings would not be initiated. It is important to be clear on that. If, for example, there were cases where it was considered that there was not a substantive breach, the enforcement authority might like to decide on that. If the operator or the buyer accepted that there was a non-compliance, the enforcement authority could decide to issue a fixed payment notice on that. There are very strict rules regarding the fixed payment notice. They are the maximum that can be provided. That is my understanding.