Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government's legislative proposals for the spring-summer session this year include No. 23, which is the consumer protection and competition Bill. That legislative measure has been on the A list for five Oireachtas sessions. One aspect of that Bill is to amalgamate the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority. However, a more important aspect of it is to provide for a statutory code of conduct for the grocery goods sector, giving effect to the recommendations of the advisory group on media mergers.

As regards that element of it, the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has reached cross-party agreement on a number of recommendations that would lead in particular to ensuring the proper labelling of Irish produce. In addition, they would ensure a ban on below-cost selling, particularly in the grocery and agriculture sectors.

I attended a meeting last night in Rush with our agriculture spokesperson, Deputy Ó Cuív, which was attended by over 50 producers of vegetables and other crops. The Christmas period nearly destroyed this sector. Many of the multiples were selling carrots for €0.09 and broccoli for €0.06 - all below cost. This industry is effectively on its knees. We welcome the fact that the Government is moving with the Consumer Protection and Competition Bill but this is the fifth session during which it has been on the A list, which is supposed to be a priority list. The Bill was to have been published this session. I ask the Deputy Leader to make contact with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to see if it will be published. To assist her in this, my understanding is that the main problem with the Bill concerns legal elements relating to the merging of the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority rather than with the statutory code of practice. If there is an issue with that, I ask that the Minister publishes the draft of what is proposed regarding the statutory code of practice. This will give the sector, particularly the agriculture and horticulture sectors, an opportunity to see what the Government is proposing so we can work at this stage to strengthen the Bill and put forward amendments to it. At this stage, it is crucially important. People are losing trust because this has been on the A list five times but has yet to be published. I would very much appreciate it if the Deputy Leader could follow up and report back in the next week or so as to when the Government intends to publish what is very important legislation. That would be excellent.