Results 7,561-7,580 of 24,065 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: It will be through the Public Appointments Service. There will be two primary producers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: There is no point unless there is another one called.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: We had better go over so. I do not have a pairing arrangement.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: There is a legal obligation that two members must be primary producers. This legal obligation is specified in the proposed legislation. Ms Robinson will clarify a further point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The board is open to remuneration, and it is expected that will be in line with similar boards. This is all to be decided. Most State boards do not pay a whole lot, but there is recompense in respect of what is involved for the members.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The proposed Bill is silent on this matter.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The proposed Bill is silent on the number of meetings.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The Minister will have a role. It will be important that the committee meets regularly, functions and carries out its legal obligations under this proposed legislation. Regarding the role of the board, we have the executive, the CEO and the staff, but they report to the board. It does governance. Similar to every board in respect of which there are legal implications, it will be important...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: What head are we on?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: This proposed legislation makes it a legal requirement for the chair or the CEO to attend the committee if they are requested to do so at any stage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: We could amend the text to specifically refer to this committee. The current wording makes it a specific legal requirement for the CEO, if asked, to appear before any Oireachtas committee, including this one. The person concerned cannot baulk at attending. The law mandates that he or she must turn up and attend such meetings. Therefore, the legal provision is there. We could specify one...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: We can consider that. We will have to work out a legal text as well to change any names.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: There will be no levy on farmers. The proposed legislation has the capacity to enable the Minister in future, by regulation, should he or she decide, to apply a levy to processors and to those for whom the UTP aspects would apply, but not on the farmers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: There is an allocation in this year’s budget, and there will be in the years to come, for the running of the office. I do not have any plan to introduce a levy now, but the proposed Bill does allow for that to be the case in future if running costs required it to be done. My preference, however, is that we would run this agency out of Departmental allocations and funding. Having...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Penalties are laid out in the unfair trading practices directive. There are compliance notices and fines. Matters can also be brought forward to prosecutions and fines where the rules around unfair practices are being breached. The office will have the capacity to do that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: If that was the case, we would be getting involved in determining and setting the price for the market. That is not something that is legally possible. We can track what is happening regarding various different prices, the markets we sell into and the changing market dynamics over time. For example, 95% of our beef is sold into the European market. There can be variances from the European...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: In order to have a healthy supply chain, it will be important that the office assesses the issues which are important to those in the supply chain. If there are issues which are creating distrust or seem to involve a lack of clarity and transparency, the office should asses that. It will also have the capacity to develop codes of practices and engage with and make reports at all levels of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (29 Jun 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: There is not specifically any measure in the Bill. I will ask my officials if there is anything to add. If it was found that the law was broken in some way, it would be open to the person who suffered the grievance to seek compensation, but the office itself does not determine compensation. It applies the law and oversees it and it can bring prosecutions in regard to it. In addition, it...