Mr. John Keane:

I thank the Deputy for the question. The legislation underpinning the ombudsman requirement in Ireland is the Ombudsman Act 1980. There are some main functions of the ombudsman that we assumed would be attributed to the new office, given that the Bill went to public consultation as a food ombudsman Bill. We engaged in good faith with the submission process under the impression the Bill was establishing a food ombudsman. We took as given that the office would have some key functions, if it were an ombudsman's office, which would allow it greater investigatory powers, including the right to investigate in respect of negligence and carelessness and in respect of "contrary to fair and sound administration". Given some of the complaints from our members, we would have assumed these powers would be part of the core work of this office.

It now looks like the functions of the ombudsman will not be attributed to it and it will be simply the office of fairness and transparency. I would highlight that this is a different framework from what was put out to public consultation. It is like the Galway footballer shooting for the goalposts, the goalposts being moved and then Hawkeye saying the submission is still relevant. We are disappointed an ombudsman is not to be given the authority to do that and will not have enforcement powers under the UTP. We do not believe the legislation goes far enough.

We have clarity on the price received at the point of purchase from the primary producer. We have clarity at the other end in respect of the price to the consumer. The ambition is that we would have the powers to see what goes on in the middle among the actors of the food supply chain. On investigating and comparing what goes on across the EU, we have one of those frameworks in milk supply. The Ornua purchase price index, PPI, feeds back information to farmers on a monthly basis as to the return of the product on the PPI. A number of months ago it was 46.9 cent per litre. The average payment price for milk received at co-operative level was 45.8 cent per litre. We have this tool that highlights this. The question is whether the availability of that tool is delivering a higher price for farmers. We suggest it is not. We would much rather see enforcement than reliance on embarrassment. Our understanding of the Bill is that it still does not provide the powers to investigate the price breakdown within the food supply chain. Applied to a simple, short food supply chain, as I understand was mentioned by other farm organisations in previous contributions, such short supply chains exist in the horticulture sector. There is a primary producer and a retailer. We have seen the diminution in the number of horticulture suppliers in the country over past years. It does not take a whole lot to examine that food supply chain to see where the power breakdown is.

The committee and the Deputy asked questions of the Minister and the CCPC in respect of investigative powers. I think Deputy Carthy raised questions about the 160-odd complaints that came in about behaviour in the beef sector a number of years ago. There was no investigation pursuant to those behaviours. We still have no idea what the criteria are for investigation. The CCPC outlined to the committee that its understanding of the Bill was that the new authority will not have the powers to conduct criminal investigations. The Minister in his previous statement to the committee the week before said it did. There has not been any clarity on that since. We are requesting clarity as to whether it will have that power.