Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 November 2019
166. Deputy Pat Deering asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the provision of an independent sectoral regulator in the beef and retail sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45798/19]
View answerDirective (EU) 2019/633 on Unfair Trading Practices in Business-to-Business Relationships in the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain (UTP Directive), came into force on 30 April 2019. EU Law requires that the Directive must be transposed into national law by 1 May 2021 and will apply in national law no later than from 1 November 2021.
The UTP Directive requires the establishment of an Enforcement Authority, which can be a new or existing authority, to discharge the duties of the UTP Directive.
A working group established between officials from my Department and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) in April this year continues to work to explore the policy, resource and operational implications of transposing and enforcing the Directive.
My Department has issued a public consultation on the transposition of the Directive, and I would urge all interested parties to make their views known before the consultation deadline of 13 December:
https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/customerservice/publicconsultations/.
