Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 6 July 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Discussion
Mr. Se?n Murphy:
The heads of Bill as currently presented refer to publicly available information in the first instance. There is a lot of information out there. I note that the office will be empowered to retain the services of consultants to gather and consider that information in order to analyse what the information is showing in terms of market trends and so on, for example. From our perspective, there was a requirement under the GGRs which is mirrored in the heads of Bill for regulated entities to submit an annual compliance report, ACR. The ACR set out certain matters that had to be reported back to the commission. That gives an insight. The regulated undertaking is required to provide that information. We set out what was required to be submitted in terms of the format and the timing of it. That very much influenced how we conducted our compliance and monitoring inspections in the following year. Once a system such as that, which allows data to be collected, is put in place, those data sets will build up through the years and provide information that will point to certain areas and developments. Mr. McHugh referred to the expertise and the general engagement the office will have in the context of the many sectors, traders and complexity involved. Once it develops that aspect, it will know which data to mine. I am confident in that regard but it will take time, a level of proficiency and efficient resources to carry through on that.