Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I am happy with this objective. The objective of the office of the regulator is to ensure primary producers are front and centre, get fair play in the food supply chain and that there is fairness throughout the food supply chain. The board initially consisted of five members of which two were to be representatives of primary producers. The committee put forward a report to me which included 20 recommendations, one of which was to increase the number of board members from five to seven. I accepted that. I substantially accepted 18 of the 20 recommendations the committee made in its report. This was one them. Deputy Carthy is suggesting that now that I have accepted the increase from five to seven members, it would be appropriate to increase the primary producer representation from two of five to three of seven. The principle is appropriate.

As the board comprises eight members, including the chair, I propose that three of the eight members should be primary producers because I do not want to preclude the option of the chair being one of the three primary producers. I propose to table an amendment on Report Stage that achieves what the Deputy is looking for. I agree with the principle, but instead of three of the seven ordinary members, it would be three of the eight members, which number includes the chair.