Mr. Arnold Dillon:

Certainly retailers would have had a lot of contact with the CCPC in the context of the grocery code and individual members would have direct relationships with the CCPC in this regard. With the revoking of those provisions, that engagement has shifted to engagement with the interim enforcement authority, which is part of the Department and will in turn be part of this office of fairness and transparency when it gets up and running on foot of the legislation. In terms of our role as a trade association, we would not directly engage with the CCPC on market-related issues. That would be for individual companies to do. However, we have already been working with the enforcement authority around the bedding in of the regulations around UTPs, which will flow into the activity of this new office. We have been working with the authority in terms of making people aware of the provisions. Recent surveys have highlighted that there is a lack of awareness. I do not think this is necessarily the case when it comes to retailers. We have held a number of briefings with the authority and put in place a range of training provisions. In that respect, we would be very supportive of the role of the new office in terms of promoting its activities and enforcement role in respect of UTPs. I think it will have a role in reaching out to many other participants in the supply chain to try to improve awareness of that. This is somewhat in the context of my comments about the existing list of UTPs. It is important that those are afforded an opportunity to bed in and that the office is afforded an opportunity to do that piece of work before any consideration is given to expanding that list.

What is new in terms of the functions and role of the office is the role it will play in terms of collecting data and reporting on the activities in the food supply chain. We are very happy and willing to participate in that and work with and support the office in that regard. Certain data that is market-sensitive will probably will not feature in the work of the office but it can play a valuable role in terms of informing a better understanding of the various relationships that exist in the supply chain. That will help support policy decisions into the future.