Johnny Mythen
Question:144. Deputy Johnny Mythen asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the expected timeframe to establish through primary legislation an unfair trading practice enforcement authority. [16973/22]
View answerThursday, 31 March 2022
Questions (144)
Written answers
As the Deputy may be aware, the Programme for Government commits to the establishment of a new Authority to enforce the Unfair Trading Practices Directive and which will have a specific role in analysing and reporting on price and market data in Ireland.
In April 2021, I signed the Statutory Instrument transposing the UTP Directive directly into Irish law before the 1st May 2021 deadline for transposition. At that time, I also established the UTP Enforcement Authority in my Department on an interim basis pending the finalisation of the primary legislation for the new Office.
I am pleased to inform the Deputy that on 22nd March last, the Government approved the priority drafting of the General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022. The Bill will establish a new independent statutory Authority to be known as the “Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain”.
Once established, the new Office will take over the enforcement functions of the interim authority and will also perform the market data and analysis function.
The draft Bill has been published on my Department's website and I plan to submit it to the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine in the context of pre-legislative scrutiny.
This an important step in fulfilling the Programme for Government commitment to bring greater fairness, equity and transparency to the agricultural and food supply chain and I am very pleased that I now have the opportunity to be able to deliver the means to help achieve that goal.
I am committed to seeing this office established over the course of the year in order to help bring much-needed transparency to the sector and as way of supporting of farm families and primary producers.