Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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117. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to introduce primary legislation to establish an unfair trading practices enforcement authority. [26982/22]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I want to ask the Minister about the expected timeframe in respect of his proposed legislation to establish an unfair trading practices enforcement authority; when he considers each stage will be progressed through the Dáil; and when he expects the final legislation to be concluded.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Carthy for the question. As he is aware, the unfair trading practices enforcement authority was established by my Department in April of last year when I signed a statutory instrument transposing the EU unfair trading practices, UTP, directive directly into Irish law. I want to assure the Deputy that this enforcement authority has been assigned all the necessary legal powers, including to investigate complaints from suppliers of agricultural and food products and to initiate legal proceedings for breaches of the unfair trading practices directives, which are defined in the UTP directive.

It is open to suppliers, including to primary producers, to engage with the enforcement authority on any concerns they may have in relation to UTPs. Information regarding enforcement authority can be found on the authority's website, where there are good resources and information. Suppliers can submit complaints in confidence through that website.

The authority has been engaging in an active awareness-raising campaign. It has been meeting with stakeholders throughout the supply chain to ensure compliance with the directive.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that, following Government approval of a general scheme of the agricultural food supply chain Bill 2022 on 22 March last, the Bill has been forwarded to the office of the Parliamentary Counsel for priority drafting. It has been submitted to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine for pre-legislative scrutiny. I hope that Deputy Carthy will be able to give it his support in order to deal with that pre-legislative scrutiny promptly. The general scheme of the Bill has also been published on my Department’s website and I am hopeful that the legal drafting will be finalised shortly, in the next few weeks, and that the Bill can be presented to both Houses of the Oireachtas in that timeframe.

This Bill will establish the office for fairness and transparency in the agrifood supply chain as a new independent statutory body. It will take over enforcement of the UTP directive. It will also have a specific role in analysing and reporting on price and market data in Ireland, with a view to bringing greater transparency to the agricultural and food supply chains. I know that we are all committed to that. The establishment of the new office will fulfil the Government's commitment to ensure transparency in the food supply chain for farmers and fishers. I want to thank Cabinet colleagues for their support on this to date.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I say with assurance that the Oireachtas committee on agriculture will, as I know from our discussions, be keen to scrutinise this Bill in an efficient way. Yet, it is very important that we do it in a robust way. The Minister will know that I was part of the discussions at a European level in relation to the unfair trading practices regulation. I was extremely disappointed with the concluding document. I felt that it was minimalist and that it allowed member states to take a minimalist approach. At the time of transposing the UTP directive via statutory instrument, the Minister took a minimalist approach. This legislation is an opportunity to make a real difference to primary producers, such as our family farmers, to ensure that they at long last get fair play in the food supply chain.

How does the Minister envisage this process? If a farmer has a complaint with the price they receive for their product within the factory, what ability will they have to make a complaint? More importantly, what power will the new enforcement authority have to pursue that complaint?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I have been advocating for this since my time in opposition. Indeed, I put it forward as part of our platform at the last general election. I welcome the recent support from Sinn Féin for the principle of the establishment of an office to ensure fairness and transparency. It is important that we see the Oireachtas agriculture committee do that pre-legislative scrutiny. I look forward to a robust and thorough engagement in relation to that.

It is important to outline that prices cannot be set. The market determines that. The key objective behind this office will be to ensure that there will be transparency in terms of what is happening in the market. Then we can see how it can be traced back from the prices that are available in the marketplace, back to the farm gate. We will see where the margins are going in relation to that. We can then put pressure on the supply chain to ensure that the farmers get fair reward, a fair profit and fair respect for the work that they are carrying out. I see that as a key objective behind the office.

As the Bill moves through the Oireachtas, I look forward to the pre-legislative scrutiny, as well as any engagement or perspectives that Deputies across the House will have in aiding in that. I have engaged very widely so far in consultation to ensure that we can have legislation that is as robust as is possible.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I am sure that the Minister will agree the last thing we need is another quango. We need an organisation that has real teeth. In the first instance, therefore, we have to ensure that unfair trading practices are outlined, identified and outlawed. That means that the current list of outlawed practices needs to be widely expanded, in my view. Second, we need to see that the enforcement authority has power to pursue breaches of that.

There is legislation before the Dáil at the moment on Committee Stage to give new powers to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to levy fines of real significance that are based on turnover. It will give the commission new powers to tackle actors who are in breach consumer and competition law. In my view, a real meat regulator that has teeth would have those powers, and more. Will it have those powers? Farmers will quite naturally ask if they will finally see a rebalancing of the relationship between them and the factories, so that they can challenge decisions that are made by factories in relation to prices. This does not necessarily relate to the prices itself, but to the penalties and to the rules that apply at factory level that are set in place to penalise those same farmers.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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This is a quite unique initiative that the Government and I are bringing forward with the objective of ensuring that primary producers, in particular farmers and fishers, get respect and that they get paid properly a fair margin of what is available in the marketplace for their massive amount of work over one or two years to produce an animal for market. As a country that exports 90% of the food we produce, it is the international marketplace that determines the final outcome. We must try to optimise that in every way we can.

The core objective and the reason for coming forward with this office is to ensure there is an independent office with the credibility and capacity to shine a light on what is happening in the marketplace and the supply chain and, therefore, to try to ensure farmers are getting fair play and, where they are not, that it is called out. That office will have any powers possible to follow that through.

I have taken a very collaborative approach to how we can develop this. I look forward to continuing to do that through pre-legislative scrutiny and in bringing legislation to the House.