Michael McCarthy (Labour)

This is something we need to be mindful of in other areas. As far as I know, this is the second of two Bills introduced by the Department in the past two years. We need to try to make legislation more user-friendly. It is important that it should be easier for ordinary lay people to interpret legislation. Departmental civil servants should be obliged to be fair and balanced in their interaction with farmers and other sectoral groups. I appreciate the Minister's response and I will withdraw my amendment on that basis. When the Department of Agriculture and Food is producing legislation in the future, perhaps it will consider the insertion of a provision that will oblige the Minister to interact with the Department's customers — in this case, farmers — in a fair and practical manner.