Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy may be aware, the programme for Government commits to the establishment of a new authority to enforce the unfair trading practices directive. It will have a specific role in analysing and reporting on price and market data in Ireland. In April 2021, I signed the statutory instrument transposing the unfair trading practices directive directly into Irish law before the 1 May 2021 deadline for transposition. At that time, I also established the unfair trading practices directive enforcement authority in my Department on an interim basis pending the finalisation of the primary legislation for the new office.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that on 22 March, the priority drafting of the general scheme of the agricultural and food supply chain Bill 2022 was approved by Government at Cabinet. The Bill will establish a new independent statutory authority to be known as the office for fairness and transparency in the agrifood supply chain. The general scheme has been published on my Department's website and it provides for a range of functions and powers. The objective of the new office will be to promote the principles of fairness and transparency in the food supply chain, and it will principally do this in two ways. First, it will perform a price and market analysis and reporting function. The new office will endeavour to bring greater transparency to the food supply chain by carrying out market analysis on publicly available agricultural and food supply chain data and by producing reports that will be made available to stakeholders and the wider public. Second, the new office will be responsible for ensuring fairness is observed in the agricultural and food supply chain by becoming the State’s designated enforcement authority for enforcing the rules on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the food supply chain. Once established, the new office will take over the enforcement functions of the interim enforcement authority currently established in my Department.

With regard to the necessary powers to improve and secure farmers’ position in the market chain, the general scheme of the Bill as approved by Government provides the necessary principles and policies to achieve the programme for Government’s objective of fairness, equity and transparency in the food chain. The next stage is the drafting of the detail of the Bill, which I am hoping will be finalised shortly. In the interim, I assure the Deputy that the interim enforcement authority has been assigned all the necessary legal powers to investigate complaints from suppliers of agricultural and food products and to carry out investigations on its own initiative.

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