I welcome the Minister to the House.
Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Second Stage
Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
I thank the Members for scheduling this today. I am pleased to present the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022 to the Seanad for Second Stage. The Bill was initiated in the Dáil in December 2022 and passed all Stages on 24 May. The Bill implements the programme for Government commitment to ensure fairness, equity and transparency in the food chain by establishing a new authority to enforce the unfair trading practices directive, with a specific role in analysing and reporting on price and market data.
This is an historic Bill.
For the first time in the history of the State, we will establish, on a statutory basis, an independent office that will promote fairness and transparency in the agricultural and food supply chain and must have regard to the specific circumstances and needs of the agricultural and food sector. As the Members will know, farming is our oldest and largest indigenous sector. It accounts for almost 7% of gross national income and more than 9% of exports in value terms. It employs more than 170,000 people throughout the country, representing more than 7% of total employment. Total exports of agrifood products last year were estimated by my Department at €18.7 billion.
Since the commencement of the legislative process and the resulting debates, I have welcomed the way in which the discussion on the Bill has been constructive. Through the collective effort of the legislative process, we are now at the point where the Bill is in its final Stages. Deputies and Senators who are members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine played an important part in the legislative process through their pre-legislative scrutiny report. I accepted in part or in full 18 of the 20 recommendations put forward in that committee and I thank Senators here for their work on that report. Senator Daly, in particular, worked very hard on it, as did Senator Boyhan, as members of the committee. I have also accepted amendments to the Bill on Committee and Report Stages where I believed their inclusion was warranted or feasible and improved the outcome.
Part 1, sections 1 to 6, sets out the preliminary and general provisions, including definitions of terms used in the Bill-----
May I interrupt the Minister for one second? I would like to acknowledge former Deputy and Senator, Dan Neville, before he leaves the Chamber. He served in this House many years ago. He was elected to the labour panel to serve here. It is important we recognise the work of Members who have come to Seanad Éireann and then went to other offices in the Dáil. Mr. Neville's great work on suicide prevention down through the years needs to be acknowledged as well. I thank Mr. Neville, former Senator, for coming to Seanad Éireann today and for all his work down through the years as a Member of both Houses and for his work on suicide prevention.
Best wishes to former Deputy, Mr. Neville.
Part 2 comprises sections 7 to 54. Chapter 1, sections 7 to 10, deals with the establishment of provisions that provides that the official name of the office will be an rialálaí agraibhia and that the new office shall be independent in the performance of its functions.
Chapter 2, sections 11 to 20, deals with the key functions to be delivered by the regulator. First, it will deliver a price and market analysis and reporting function and, in doing so, the new body will facilitate timely access to information about price and market trends, which should help bring greater transparency to the agrifood supply chain. This function should help food businesses, including primary producers, to compete effectively and take well-informed production and marketing decisions. Second, the agrifood regulator will also become the designated national enforcement authority for the unfair trading practices, UTPs, directive and any additional unfair trading regulations introduced under this Bill. These powers of enforcement will transfer from the UTP enforcement authority, currently operating on an interim basis in my Department since I transposed the EU-wide UTP directive into Irish law by statutory instrument in 2021. The functions also include providing information and advice to the Minister about the agricultural and food supply chain and consultations on legislation affecting the agricultural and food supply chain.
In chapter 3, sections 21 to 26, the governance provisions provide that an rialálaí agraibhia will be led by a board. On the basis of the pre-legislative scrutiny report, I increased the number of board members from six to eight. On the basis of discussions on Committee Stage, I introduced an amendment on Report Stage that increased the primary producer representation on the board from two members to three. The board members will be appointed when the office is established.
Chapter 4, sections 27 to 32, deals with proceedings. The Bill provides that the new office may establish committees to assist it with its work.
Chapter 5, sections 33 to 34, provides that the new office will have a chief executive officer and I was pleased to recently announce, following a competitive process, the appointment of a CEO-designate for an rialálaí agraibhia, Niamh Lenehan. Pending the establishment of the office, she has commenced work on an interim basis as head of the UTP enforcement authority in my Department and is preparing for transfer of powers to an rialálaí agraibhia once it is established after the legislation has been passed.
Chapter 6, sections 35 and 36, provides for attendance before Oireachtas committees as well as staffing; planning and reporting; finance; and standard provisions.
Chapters 7 to 11, inclusive, which cover sections 37 to 54, provide for staffing and operational matters of the new office including strategy, work programmes, annual reports, finance and prohibited disclosures and membership of other bodies.
Part 3 deals with the UTP directive. Chapter 1 deals with the scope of the enforcement of the UTPs, which concerns business-to-business relationships. Chapter 2 provides the Minister with the power to make regulations on unfair trading practices which will be known as the "Agri-Food Unfair Trading Regulations". The existing UTPs included in SI 198 of 2021 have been provided for in the regulation-making powers in section 57. This includes late payments; payment for deterioration or loss of products; charges for stocking, displaying or listing products, or fitting out; charges for making products available on the market; the cost of any discounts sold by the buyer as part of a promotion; a charge for advertising or marketing by the buyer; and payment of compensation for the cost of examining customer complaints.
Chapter 3 provides for powers to levy fines of up to €10 million on buyers, including retailers, food producers and processors, "or 10 per cent of the aggregate turnover ... in the financial year in which the offence was committed or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 3 years, or to both". This chapter also provides for procedures for submission of complaints and alternative dispute resolutions.
Part 4 deals with enforcement. Chapters 1 and 2 provide for the appointment and powers of authorised officers of the new office. It is relevant to note that an rialálaí agraibhia will have the powers to enter a premises where the authorised officer has reasonable grounds for believing that there are records relating to agricultural and food products. Chapter 3 provides for enforcement and supplementary regulation-making powers, covering a range of matters, including regulation-making powers for the collection of price and market information to address issues of lack of transparency and information asymmetry in the agricultural and food supply chain.
Chapter 4, sections 81 to 86, provides for time limits for instituting summary proceedings, liability for offences by organisations and offences for breaches of any regulations made under this chapter.
The Bill fulfils the Government’s commitment to fairness and transparency in our agrifood sector. It provides our farmers, fishers, growers and small businesses with an effective advocate with the powers necessary to protect them from stronger players in the sector and, through its price-analysis and market-analysis function, help to improve their position. Our agrifood sector produces the best food in the world and it is only right that our primary producers are afforded a regulator with the powers necessary to see that they are resilient in the years ahead and continue to be able to do so.
I thank all the parties involved in getting the Bill to this Stage: fellow Deputies, the Oireachtas joint committee members for their recommendations; the Bills Office; the Whip’s office; the Seanad Office; the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel; the Office of the Attorney General; and the team in my own Department who have prepared the Bill. I look forward to the contributions of this House and hope we can progress the enactment of this Bill and establish an rialálaí agraibhia without undue delay. I commend the Bill to the House.
I welcome the Minister to the House. If needs be, I second his proposal that the Bill be now read a second time. I warmly welcome the Bill, which will provide for the establishment of a body known as an rialálaí agraibhia. The Minister thanked many people in his conclusion but he left out one very important person. Without becoming overly partisan - I am not being partisan - the Minister deserves great credit and thanks. The Bill would not be here today without him. It is his brainchild. During the previous Government, as lead spokesperson on agriculture for our party, Fianna Fáil, I worked very closely with him in this House.
This was his brainchild. He promoted it very strongly and ensured it was in Fianna Fáil's manifesto for the 2020 general election. He then succeeded in getting it included in the programme for Government. Unlike what happens a lot of the time, when he did assume the role of Minister, he did not leave it behind him. So often we see Opposition spokespeople with great ideas but when they do receive and grab the reins of power, they can often forget what they promised and promoted previously but the Minister did not do that and brought it to this Stage today.
Along the way, I was honoured to be involved in the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which carried out very extensive pre-legislative scrutiny on the Bill. I know the Minister met with all the stakeholders in 2021. When the committee carried out pre-legislative scrutiny in 2022, we also met with all the stakeholders and those who will be affected by the new regulator. I warmly welcome the fact that in spite of and contrary to much of the commentary, we made 20 recommendations in our very comprehensive report after our pre-legislative scrutiny. As the Minister rightly said, 18 of those 20 recommendations have been fully or partially included in the Bill. It is not just the Minister and I who are saying this here today for our benefit or to promote the Bill. Anyone who wishes can get the documentation from the Library and Research Service, which carried out an independent analysis of what was included in the Bill from pre-legislative scrutiny, and read it. I am quoting from the independent research of the Library and Research Service when I say that 18 of our 20 recommendations have been partially or fully included, which is to be welcomed.
Much of the Dáil debate on this Bill was on a Wednesday evening, when the aforementioned committee sits, so I did not get to watch it all but I got to watch some of it. There is some negativity out there from some quarters. I make no bones about saying that the committee did not see much of some of the people who were hardest on the Minister and most negative in their approach to the Bill when it was carrying out pre-legislative scrutiny. This is where they could have greater influence based on the numbers I have given, which show how influential our pre-legislative scrutiny was.
People need to step back and look at what this Bill is meant to achieve. Many people with whom I discuss the Bill are negative to an extent. They think it will be a new Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. We already have that so we do not need duplication. The most important role the new independent body can play is to correlate information such as price and trading information to which the Minister will have access.
Another group of people think this new body will be able to fix prices for farmers. As much as I would love it, that is not possible. If the price is bad, it is down to me as a farmer and the person to whom I am selling my product to negotiate the best deal I can. The role of the new body will be to make sure that whatever contract or price arrangement I willingly walked into and agreed will be honoured, which does not always happen. This is vital. The most significant role of this body will be the policing of unfair trading practices along with access to and knowledge of the information this body will be able to gather when it comes to pricing and farmer commercial interaction, arrangements and contracts. While we cannot as administrators influence the price that individuals negotiate, with almost every passing week the Minister is getting requests for supports and subsidies where the price is too low because input costs went up or farmers cannot get the price because of the weather and the product is not as good as it was or the crop failed. When it comes to the Minister or future Ministers deciding on supports, where supports are most needed or how those supports will be most beneficial to the sector through being paid to the right people at the right time for the right reason, the information that will be available from this office will be invaluable.
I welcome the appointment of Niamh Lenehan and look forward to working with her. She and the new body will be answerable to the Oireachtas committees. The idea here is to promote fairness and transparency in the agrifood supply chain. The initiative is the Minister's brainchild. I compliment him on that and on bringing it to fruition here today, although today is not the be-all-and-end-all. When it passes through Seanad Éireann, the Minister can proudly say that it is definitely one that came from its infancy in his own outlook, which must be welcomed. I compliment the Minister for not forgetting his promises when he gained high office and bringing the Bill to this Stage.
I acknowledge the Minister's very significant contribution to this legislation and his proactive collective engagement. He is one of the few Ministers I can say this about. He said that it was a collective effort. He listened to amendments in the Dáil. I played back the debate and read some of it. He engaged very constructively with the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, of which I am a member. I take this opportunity to thank in particular Senator Paul Daly, who is a very active member of the committee on all matters to do with agriculture, food and the marine, contributes very constructively and robustly to all legislation and teases out the challenges around them. The Minister would know that so it is important to acknowledge that the parliamentary legislative process was maximised and was flexible. I thought there were many clever Ministers and this is not to do them all down but they do not even have the bottle to come in here and salute someone with half of a good idea and say "look, we'll work on it". For most Ministers in this coalition Government, it is "no, no, no", which is not a clever move. Remember the people when you are going up but remember that all of us in political life will be coming down. I want to acknowledge on the record of this House today that the Minister has been pragmatic and engaging.
The genesis of this legislation could not have happened without the support of the Green Party and Fine Gael, the Minister's partners in government. That is important because if you look at all their documents, you can see that they touched on issues relating to regulation in this sector.
It is also important to acknowledge that this Bill gives effect to Directive 2019/633 on unfair trading practices from business to business and relationships with the agrifood sector chain, so there was a requirement at some point for us to bring this on. I know the Minister was very conscious of that.
Senator Paul Daly touched on the pre-legislative scrutiny, which was effective. We teased out the issues. Most of them were incorporated into the final Bill, which was important. We note that the text of the initial draft of the Bill changed following pre-legislative scrutiny on foot of most recommendations of the committee. The Bill now includes provision for an increase in the maximum fine up to €10 million or 10% of global turnover. It is important to acknowledge this. The Bill empowers the regulator to acquire information to examine and publish reports on production costs, which is also an important function. It focuses and has the power to strengthen greater transparency in the sector. That is what the sector was looking for and that is what it is getting, so something important has been achieved through this legislation.
The committee's recommendation to extend the scope of the Bill to include business-to-customer relationships was rejected on the grounds - the Minister can challenge or check me on this if I am not fully correct - that there were already existing established legislative frameworks for those relationships so that covered that. That is fair. Nobody gets it all right. That is the great engagement and traction the Minister provided for. We teased that out and there was a reason for its rejection. Also rejected was the proposal to give the regulator certain competition-related powers of enforcement on the grounds that the CCPC more appropriately holds these powers. Again, there was a rationale for it and I think when you give the rationale and explain it, it is very easy to understand.
The Bill seeks to address the issues of unfair trading practice in business-to-business relationships in the agriculture and food-agrifood supply chain, which is important. The Bill provides for principles of fairness and transparency and aims to strengthen the position of farmers, fishers and other suppliers in the agrifood supply chain. It aims to ensure proper enforcement of UTP rules. The Bill also establishes a new office of fairness and transparency in the agrifood supply chain, known as the regulator, which will replace the existing unfair trading practices enforcement authority as the designated enforcement authority for unfair trading practices in the agrifood sectors.
I am conscious that the Minister announced the appointment of Niamh Lenehan as the CEO-designate of the regulator. Her CV is impeccable and she is an amazing person. I have come across her myself. It was warmly welcomed. The Minister managed to identify someone with an enormous skill set that will work well here. I acknowledge that.
The proposed functions and powers of enforcement of the regulator under the Bill include: strengthening the rights of farmers, fishers and other suppliers, which is important; price and marketing analysis reporting on domestic and foreign agricultural food markets to strengthen suppliers’ positions in the supply chain against large buyers, which is also very important; increasing the enforcement and rules in governing UTPs and encouraging better compliance - something the sector has been asking for - including public awareness campaigns, which there is a great demand for; and the publication of guidelines for investigation of suspected breaches. As the Minister said, the regulator’s office will be able to enter the premises for inspections, including of vehicles and lands; examine documents and records and make potential seizures where there are reasonable grounds to support an offence, which was teased out to some extent during the pre-legislative scrutiny and in the Dáil; issue compliance notices regarding known, proven breaches, and there will be a process to do that; and issue a fixed payment notice of €1,000 in appropriate circumstances and initiate summary proceedings for the failure to make such fixed payment notices.
In essence, I am supportive of this Bill. In addition, the regulator will be able to refer cases to the Director of Public Prosecutions where the regulator has reasonable grounds for believing that an indictable offence under the Bill has been committed, which is important. The regulator may also promote the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. It is always a good thing in policy to consider alternative mechanisms for the resolution of disputes. That is what we want; we want resolution. We want to put the brakes on people. We want to tease out the issues and challenges but we want fairness, openness and transparency in all these processes.
The legislation is timely and responsive to the demands of the sector and I am very much supportive of it. I acknowledge the Minister's determination to drive this through. It was not quite what we originally talked about in terms of an ombudsman-type figure but I think it is the right one. Its primary responsibility, as the Minister said and has always argued, is to promote fairness and transparency in agriculture and the food chain. The provisions of the Bill are important because the regulator will now be empowered under this legislation to have the price, market analysis and reporting functions as well as regulatory enforcement functions concerning prohibited UTPs.
The Minister was right to drive the agenda through. He had the support of Government parties. This is positive legislation and the issue now is to communicate the messages. Like anything, we had discussions yesterday and in the past few weeks about different issues and policies. It is about getting clear, crisp clarity around the Minister’s message that is honourable, full of integrity and is facts, not fiction. I wish the Minister well with this Bill.
I am here in place of a colleague, Senator Tim Lombard, who sends his apologies. I commend the Minister on, as others said, driving the agenda to establish this office. The programme for Government referenced an ombudsman, which Senator Boyhan touched on. Perhaps the Minister will explain the difference he sees between an ombudsman and a regulator, or perhaps it is just a name, but I know that was the original intent. What issues arose in terms of the establishment?
I commend the members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on their comprehensive pre-legislative scrutiny. I have gone through the recommendations it made and, in fairness, the Minister accepted and adopted the majority of them. As he stated in his opening contribution, he is also agreeing to take on amendments from the Dáil and perhaps this House as well during Committee and Report Stages. I also welcome the commitment, and again part of a recommendation, to consider primary producers as part of the board. Will that be through a Public Appointments Service, PAS, type system or will that be directly to the Minister’s office? I presume a PAS system will be a more appropriate manner of selecting those members.
I think we all accept that competition is hugely important but there is a difference between competition and unfair, unsustainable practices. Sustainability is important but as well as sustainability it is important to look at the economic sustainability of farmers as the primary producers. That is hugely important in respect of all this and that has to be acknowledged. Systems we have that allow for undercutting and all that we have seen, particularly in the milk sector, can have a huge impact on the family farm. It is important that we stamp out unfair trading practices. The directive coming from the EU together with this Bill will have an important role.
The expectation is one of those things we always have to be cautious about. Sometimes the expectation will be not what this office can do but what it cannot do and what people think it can do. That is what we might see once it is established and once there is a crisis in one of the sectors and whatever else. If we look at the ongoing debate relating to milk, it is evident what farmers receive for milk, the costs of packaging and pasteurisation and all that goes with that for producers and what the retail charges the consumer for it. Those are the differences in the three different steps. Obviously, there are different costs along the way but the issue here has always been that the primary producer has been the one regarded as doing much of the work to get their product ready for market but they do not get a fair price for it. Most Members are conscious of primary producers getting a fair price for their work.
I welcome the commitments on the appointments to the board and to ensure looking at primary producers. The functions of the regulator are important and I know this has been comprehensively dealt with by the Oireachtas committee. I refer to the circumstances and needs of the agriculture and the food sector, including, in particular, farming businesses, fishing businesses and small food businesses. The regulator will publish an analysis of information on price and market data relating to the agricultural and food supply chain. The regulator will be responsible for enhancing understanding of and compliance with agrifood unfair trading law and enforcing agrifood and fair trading law and shall be the designated enforcement authority for unfair trading practices. The regulator may, for the purposes of protecting supplier interest, publish guidelines for buyers about supply protection and trading practices, whether generally or in a particular trade, business or professional sector. The regulator may review codes of practice submitted and also can provide advice to the Minister about the agriculture and food sector and the agrifood unfair trading law and UTPs. The Minister may consult the regulator regarding the proposals for legislation relating to any aspect of fairness and transparency in the agricultural and food supply chain. The Bill provides for powers to levy fines on buyers including retailers, food processors and producers, which can include a penalty on the aggregate turnover for the financial year that the offence was committed or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three years, or both.
The Bill shall provide for annual reports and for accounts to be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas, as well as a requirement for the regulator to appear before the Committee of Public Accounts and the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, as required. That is an important aspect. I welcome the Bill and the functions of the regulator. It will have a lot of important work to do. My only area of caution is in respect of expectation. That is one concern. As soon as a crisis hits, there will be expectation that the regulator will be able to solve all issues and intervene. It does have a role and it will provide the transparency and clarity that are needed in order that we will not have a debate on who is creaming off the hard work of the primary producer, but the powers to be able to intervene and fix things are of concern. I welcome the establishment of an rialálaí agraibhia and compliment the Minister on his initiative and drive on this legislation.
I congratulate the Minister on this important work. I used to teach maths and physics but I also taught civil, social and political education. When I was teaching fair trade, I would draw a banana on the board and slice it up with the smallest slice going to the grower of the bananas. You could do that now with a steak or a litre of milk. This Bill may help to deal with that. For far too long, the people who do the most work have got the least money out of it. I welcome the Bill in general. The introduction of the regulator should ensure that primary producers of food – farmers, growers, fishers and small producers – are dealt with fairly through the food supply chain and hopefully it will advocate for them too. It would be brilliant to ensure compliance with unfair trading laws, which we know to be a huge issue. What will happen around the monopoly on offal and processing? That is something we will have to deal with if we want better payments to and fairer treatment for producers, to the dairy, the beef and the growers, because there seems to be a monopoly around charges for dealing with offal and processing beef as more and more local butchers close and producers of beef are obliged to go to the big companies. So must the milk producers. They are caught because they have to take whatever price they are given. I hope this will deal with that.
I also hope the regulator will take a more nuanced approach to pricing. Take big farmers, say in Meath, with 1,000 head of cattle and a small farmer in west Clare with 30 cattle. They are getting the same price for the meat but there is no debate on the difference in quality. We need to look at the quality of the product and valuing it. There is a huge difference between grass-fed, free-range, outside, happy-as-Larry cattle as opposed to 24-hour, intensively farmed cattle pumped with lots of chemicals. I hope the regulator will look at pricing in a more nuanced way because we have to look at the small-farm families doing their best with good animal husbandry and really good-quality meat and milk and we have to differentiate between the two.
We must do more to help support smaller producers. We have a great lad at home, John Vaughan, who launched Moo'ghna Milk. He is bringing milk to three villages and you can fill up your bottle yourself. It is good for many reasons. The amount of paperwork he had to go through nearly broke him but he would not give in. It is amazing to see how insane the scrutiny of small producers can be by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine inspectors. It is not the same level for the big ones. The cost can be so exorbitant for small producers that they just give up. That is something we need to look at. To be fair, John Vaughan did get good support from the Government in other ways but it went on a very long time. My sister has the family farm. She makes goat's cheese and from working there and looking at it, I know how the intense costs can lead to small producers needing huge loans. John Vaughan is providing six jobs and my sister provides 12 jobs on a small family farm. You would not see that many employees on a big intensive dairy where you have a lot of machines and maybe one guy making a lot of money. There is something valuable about the number of jobs provided when you value small producers.
The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, report showed that we need to do much more to support farmers in their challenges around nitrates. There is no doubt but that it is an issue. Not every farmer is to blame but some are. We do not see proper enforcement but we also need to support farmers more in order that they are not forced because of poor pricing to intensify their farming and, as a result, have too many nitrates.
The war in Ukraine showed how farmers had become so reliant on inputs from abroad that they were in serious trouble when they looked to get nitrates. They have become dependent on global inputs and we should not do that. We should be much more sustainable and self-reliant. If it is not the Ukraine war, then it is climate emergency. We will see droughts in other countries and there will be huge issues where Irish farmers are dependent on imports to be able to run their farms. It is not sustainable in the long term at all and it is coming down the track much sooner than we think.
I acknowledge the good work of the Minister and his team on this. It was badly needed for a long time. It was in the programme for Government and we are delivering on the promises made in it. The Green Party has always believed that sustainable farming methods that focus on smaller-scale quality-based production will provide greater financial security to those in the agriculture sector and will safeguard the use of farming land, marine environments and family farms. People talk about farmers versus Greens and so on but there is a difference between a 30-head-of-cattle farm and a thousand cattle in a shed. We have to start having a more nuanced debate about farming and pricing for farmers. There is such a big difference.
We have a great farmers' market in Ennis with beef producers, pork producers and food growers. They are so busy producing and going to market that they have no time for public relations. I would love to see the Department acknowledge the importance of farmers' markets that enable the small producers to bring their products to consumers directly. I know this Bill deals with business-to-business but a small amount of supports could make a huge difference to farmers' markets which do not have time to do marketing. They can get supports from local authorities but that is not working out very well. Let us show small producers that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine appreciates them and the quality of their produce. The fact that they have to stand around a market all day also takes their time off on the land where they need to be growing and minding their animals. It would be great to see something in the budget to support farmers' markets. I wish the Minister the best of luck with this Bill.
I welcome the Minister. The Labour Party welcomes the opportunity to speak on this very important Bill. It has considerable implications for relations in and along the food chain and among those operating in our agricultural sector. It seeks to transpose the EU directive on unfair trading practices in the agriculture and food supply chain. The directive intends to improve transparency and rebalance the distribution of power in the food sector.
It is not unfair to say that for too long, farmers and other primary producers have been taken for granted in the prices they are paid. They are price takers in the market and are often beholden to large retailers or processors which behave like cartels. They are vulnerable to abuse because they are not in a strong position in terms of bargaining power. Ginormous profits are being made in the food production sector but the primary producers are not getting anywhere near their fair cut. We think the Bill is very well intentioned in its efforts to address this power imbalance but we have concerns about how effective it can be. As is too often the case with the Government, the Bill’s provisions do not go far enough to make a real and meaningful impact on the industry and how it protects primary producers. Helpful and constructive amendments were put down by the Opposition in the Dáil that would have improved the Bill’s efficacy but they were struck down by the Government on Report Stage. I acknowledge that the Minister accepted a number of recommendations made at pre-legislative scrutiny. I hope that the Minister will be open to amendments here and will take the suggestions on board.
A number of issues in the Bill should be addressed but today I will focus on the independent regulator. The establishment of an independent regulator for the agrifood sector is much needed and timely. It is something for which farmers and primary producers have long called. If it improves the level of transparency in the sector and levels the playing field as intended, it will be a positive intervention. My concerns are around the powers vested in the regulator or rather around the absence of certain powers. I do not believe the regulator has been given the breadth needed to properly carry out its mandate in protecting producers against unfair trading practices. The limitations placed on it have effectively nullified much of the influence it could have to improve conditions for small producers.
How, for example, is the proposed regulator supposed to carry out proper analysis and investigate violations and allegations of unfair trading practices if it has access only to publicly available information? If we really want to clamp down on the issues in the sector and rebalance the power dynamics in order that the primary producers are not being shafted at every turn, we need to give the regulator access to unpublished market data and information from all along the food supply chain. This Bill, unfortunately, in our opinion, does not do that and does not go far enough. It will be next to impossible for the regulator to carry out investigations thoroughly unless the issue is addressed. The whole endeavour will be just a fool's errand if that does not happen.
We cannot afford a light-touch approach to this legislation and the regulator in particular. Farmers and other primary producers really cannot afford a light-touch approach to regulation in the sector. The sector is rife with issues that are hurting farmers and impacting their incomes, such as below-cost purchasing, delayed payments, and unilateral and short-notice contract changes by buyers. These practices are hurting the viability of small primary producers' businesses, as colleagues have said already. They do not have the same financial or bargaining power of the big retailers, processors and suppliers. We need to give them a greater bargaining chip but we cannot do that unless the regulator is given adequate powers to carry out this monolith.
I want to touch briefly on the issue of rising grocery prices and the price gouging that has happened in our supermarkets. This issue was first raised by my colleague Deputy Nash in the Dáil some time ago, and now we are hearing from the same supermarkets trying to save face and making a big deal of lowering their prices. It has shown a fundamental flaw in our consumer protection laws. That flaw could have been addressed in this Bill by giving the new regulator the power to investigate anti-competitive practices. That is another trick that has been missed by limiting the regulator to business-to-business practices. I acknowledge that a lot is being asked of our farmers and primary producers now and into the future in how they conduct their business. They are at the vanguard of our climate action and our response to environmental degradation. It is true that serious and fundamental changes are needed in our agriculture sector and I genuinely believe that the vast majority of farmers are open to this challenge and want to make their sector more sustainable. However, we need to give them the greatest amount of support possible. We need to emphasise the principles of just transition. If a food regulator can help them in that regard and ensure the fairest deal for farmers in regard to their business, this certainly is a very welcome step. I look forward to engaging with the Minister as this Bill makes its way through the Houses.
As we are discussing food and the importance of food, it is great to see young people in the Chamber for part of this debate. They are probably here on a tour. It is an interesting debate to be part of. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus roimh a chuid oifigigh go dtí an Teach.
With all my colleagues I welcome this Bill. This is a really significant day not alone for farmers but also for consumers because it is going to give hope to producers, particularly smaller producers. I commend the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is a fantastic committee. The Minister has had great engagement with it. Unfortunately, I was not successful in getting on it because of my background in horticulture and because we have a family farm at home. I regret that but I engage because as an Oireachtas Member I am entitled to engage. It is an important committee within the Houses of the Oireachtas.
With this food supply chain Bill we have come to a situation where we are going to have a food regulator. I compliment Niamh Lenehan and wish her well. No doubt she will be excellent at her job. It means that for the first time in this country we are giving certainty to producers. To put it in context, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, was at a very successful evening in Roscommon in recent months. By the way, they want him down again. We will talk about that again. When I talked to a few of the smaller farmers they told me that their fathers used to grow a bit of grain, a few potatoes and some carrots and parsnips. South Roscommon was very well known for its vegetables. It is all gone. One of the reasons it is gone is that the multinationals control the market. They are buying in massive bulk. Of course, when they are part of a chain, suppliers have to adhere to the rules. They are clearly saying to me that for the first time in a long time a Minister and his officials recognise that we need to do something about food security in our own country. To a person with a horticultural background, it is utterly shameful to see Spanish onions and broccoli from Kenya here. By the way, even blueberries can be grown very successfully on Irish bogs in acid ground. Bord na Móna did trials for a long time. We spend millions of euro on that type of fruit now because our population looks at things that are really good for you, and blueberries are. They are coming in from Morocco, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and every place. That is happening because the smaller producers in this country could not survive, or felt they could not survive. I realise that horticulture is not totally part of the Minister's brief but I want to make this point. We have to arrive at a situation in this country, and our people have to get the message. When we look at the war in Ukraine and Covid-19, we see what agriculture did in producing all of that food. We can look at Ireland's record of producing really good food, much of which goes for export. Last year the figure was an incredible €15.5 billion. We need to encourage our people here to get back into food production by growing potatoes, grain and the types of vegetables and fruit that can be grown in this country. With climate change, it is probable that more food types can be grown here now. That type of self-sufficiency is important for every nation. We can do it brilliantly.
To get back to my original point, the smaller producers were not doing it because they were afraid it would not be economically viable. I hope we can develop this. What the Minister is doing is a huge step forward. When I was telling farmers in Ahascragh, Ballyforan and my own area of Strokestown about this legislation, they said that if they had some support like this, it would give them hope. They said they would work, go back into food production and produce the food in a very good way. Senator Garvey mentioned the local markets. Those markets are very important. I thank the Minister and his officials, and Senator Paul Daly and all those on the agriculture committee. Hopefully this initiative will deal with unfair trading practices whereby the big operators have bullied the little people out of the way. That is what has happened. We all know that is what has happened. Let us be honest and frank about it. To the consumer I will say that I went into one of the bigger stores in a provincial town and picked up vegetables at a very cheap price, as well as two other products at a dear price. When I got back to my own little supermarket in Strokestown where we have every service, I picked up the two other products cheaper than they were in the multinational supermarket in the provincial town, and there was only a couple of cent difference in the price of the vegetables. I had travelled 14 km to that town, not specifically to buy those groceries, and taking everything into account, I was better off doing business in my home supermarket. This is a good day for food producers and the agriculture sector in this country.
I welcome the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to the Chamber to speak about this fantastic legislation. Ireland is world-class in delivering on food and farming, with grass-fed farms. This is the next step to bring us up and ensure there is transparency at all stages. I welcome this new Bill. As the Minister mentioned, 9% of exports come from the farming sector. Nearly 170,000 people work in the sector. That is probably not even counting the number of retailers and processors. It is incredible to think that 170,000 people are engaged in farming and fishing as well. He also mentioned that €18.7 billion is generated by this sector. It shows how Ireland has come on in leaps and bounds in the quality of what we do and how we use innovation and drive ahead. Our farmers are doing that by working with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and its officials. The Minister spoke about the role of an rialálaí agraibhia. The person who is starting in this role will hit the ground running.
Already those measures have been set up within the Department and so on, and this is the next step in the Seanad.
I mention the enforcement side of this. We are looking at transparency and we will get data about all the elements of the food chain and so on but we are also looking at enforcement. The Minister might comment a little more about section 14 and about how this person will carry out these inspections. They will be able to bring proceedings for offences and refer cases to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Do we have an idea of numbers within two or three years? Will there be a target to have X amount of inspections, outcomes or impacts in these areas of enforcement? That will show people the importance and value of this regulator and what this will mean. The communication around this will be crucial. Farmers, small processors, retailers and suppliers all need to be aware of the impact of this new role so communication on that will be really crucial.
I want to acknowledge the recent announcements from the Department, which I welcome. I know we are trying to do work on the targeted agriculture modernisation schemes, TAMS, and I mention the 60% grant aid for solar panels and so on. That is crucial for farming. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, will be looking at farm safety under Teagasc and there is 60% grant aid for farm safety measures as well. How is that coming along in terms of applications for or interest in the programme? I know the Minister recently announced nearly €300,000 in funding for agrifood tourism. That highlights groups like the BIA Innovator Campus in Athenry in Galway and the importance of agrifood tourism linking with heritage and culture, which is crucial.
I mention the suckler carbon efficiency programme and there has been a great uptake in that with 20,000 farmers participating. From what I understand, that includes nearly 2,500 farmers in Galway alone and 1,200 farmers in Roscommon. That shows how farmers are driving innovation in trying to meet our targets. I mention the quality of food production on this island again.
Only recently there was another programme announced and the Minister might reference it. It is under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage but a grant of €7,500 for farm houses was announced, including measures under expert conservation advice. Through that, farmers can look at pulling down the Croí Cónaithe vacant property refurbishment grant of over €50,000, potentially, for farm houses that have been left vacant. This is income coming into farming families across the country. These programmes and schemes are ways for income to come into our farming families, as well as to ensure we are looking at driving income through transparent measures with this new regulator post. I know the Minister will be speaking to a lot of points but it is important for us to see that what he is trying to do here will make a massive difference to farming families. I look forward to seeing the impact of that in the next while.
I welcome the establishment of the agrifood regulator, which is long overdue. I welcome this draft Bill and the measures included in it that will improve protections for farmers and all our other food providers in the agriculture sector.
It is essential because when you look at the agrifood chain it is the farmers in the supply chain who are consistently squeezed. They are the ones who are facing huge increases in the cost of production, and you do not have to look any further than the significant increases they are paying in their energy costs to see that making even the smallest amount of profit is a struggle for them. We know that the profit is being made somewhere in the supply chain, so this aptly named Agriculture and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022 should bring about more transparency on where the profits are being made along the way.
I welcome the regulator's responsibilities under the Bill to publish reports, therefore, particularly that they will be published regularly because we have so many other quangos, for want of a better word, that just do not produce anything. I want to see the regular reports and I want to see the analysis on the prices produced in those reports being openly and transparently debated and discussed. For too long, where profits were made in the agriculture sector has been shrouded in darkness and the people who have always been kept in the dark, because they did not have a voice, are the ones who are producing the food for the retailers and consumers. Sadly, it is the farmers and the other providers that are impacted the most by this lack of transparency. The establishment of the regulator will be worth it if it does nothing else other than achieve this one objective of bringing about more fairness in how the profits are distributed along the agriculture supply chain.
What is most important and welcome is that the regulator will have enforcement powers. I know the Minister has just left but in recent months he has made a variety of statements espousing that this new body will have real teeth in being an advocate for farmers and all our producers. For this to be the case once the body is established and up and running, it needs to show us that it will not be afraid to use its enforcement powers. That includes imposing significant fines on retailers that are found to be engaging in unfair trading practices with producers. It also includes keeping them quiet and gagging them from expressing their opinions on how it is to be dealt with.
With that in mind, the members of the committee that will be established need to be chosen exceptionally carefully as they will be the ones who will be charged with carrying out the functions of the regulator. As an aside, I welcome the final subsection of section 21 of the Bill, which states: "The Minister shall aim to appoint an equal number of men and women" to the committee. It is about time we got that to being the norm.
I agree with the Minister that we are all on the same page. It is essential that this regulator has real teeth because the agrifood sector is worth protecting. We have 170,000 people employed in the sector and we have 130,000 active farms across Ireland. We have buckets of beautiful produce that Senator Murphy has talked about and that we all, to some extent, take for granted. We should not take it for granted. If we do not protect these producers and their profits and livelihoods, then at the end of the day we will not have them. We cannot argue and bemoan that in a couple of years when we have only Spanish onions. We need to protect our own producers.
I met a number of growers last Friday, just coincidentally, in Fingal, just outside Malahide. They welcome the introduction of this and they finally see a space where somebody will have responsibility for investigating these unfair trading practices they have been complaining about. They need a renewal of the horticulture exceptional payments scheme, HEPS, that was introduced last year to provide them with short-term survival. The conditions have not changed for these growers since first HEPS was introduced last year and we need a renewal of that scheme. We all know the money is there, not least in the Brexit fund, but we have a significant surplus this year as well. I am calling on the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to confirm that we will see a second round of payments under HEPS. Growers will simply go out of business if we do not provide it to them. Providing long-term regulatory frameworks, which we are doing in this Bill, is great but little by little we are seeing growers go out of business and telling us they are losing money in growing crops to produce food for us, the consumer. That is a crying shame. This Government has been hugely supportive of individuals and businesses in the last 18 months but we need to continue to do so when the environment is still impacting people's ability to make a living.
I welcome the appointment of Niamh Lenehan; she has a fantastic track record. I concur with what Senator Murphy said earlier, that this is genuinely a good day. When this Bill passes and this regulator is established it will be a really good day, not just for producers but also for consumers, to make sure there is fairness and transparency in the provision of food that we all need. We have Food Vision 2030 targets and we all need to see everybody getting a good and fair deal all along the way. I commend the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and all the officials on getting this to where it is today. Let us get this agency up and running as quickly as we can and let us see the teeth we know it will have.
Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome the opportunity to debate this Bill. The establishment of a food regulator has been a long-standing demand of Sinn Féin. An enforcement body that protects farmers and communities from the stranglehold of dominant processors, particularly the meat factories and multinational retailers, must be a central plank in delivering a fair price to Irish farmers for their quality product.
The Bill has been subject to considerable debate in the Dáil and I would like to highlight some important developments in it since its initiation and since the acceptance of Sinn Féin amendments during Committee Stage in February 2023. These amendments mark a positive step forward and I welcome the Minister's willingness to accept them. One of the key amendments is the increase in the number of board members of the regulator from five to seven. What is more, this ensures that three of these members will be primary producers. This move is essential in ensuring that the voices of those directly involved in the agriculture sector are heard and represented.
It is important to have broad representation, especially given that we have seen only recently in reports the gaping disparity between farmer incomes, and not all farmers are the same. Therefore, I hope there will be a good mix, not only in terms of what is being produced but also the scale at which food producers are producing it.
As an aside, while we are on the subject of boards, it is important that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine examines the membership of other boards involved in the agricultural sector and particularly those of Teagasc. Its board is currently made up of representatives of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society, ICOS, the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, and Macra na Feirme. Given that the role of Teagasc now includes reviewing and guiding the strategic direction, and we are in circumstances where we have legally binding sectoral emission reduction targets, I wonder if the Minister would give a view on whether it is time to review the make-up of the board of Teagasc in order that it can include representatives from, for example, the organic farming sector or regenerative farming organisations that are doing incredible work across the country, those high nature value farms, or even give scope for a member of the Climate Change Advisory Council to be a member of the board of Teagasc to ensure it is actually going in the right direction.
Returning to the Bill at hand, another significant amendment empowers the regulator to seek all the necessary information required to carry out its role effectively. It is really important, and it is great that the regulator will now be able to identify any additional powers required to fulfil its duties and can report this to the Minister, making it known to the Oireachtas. The provision ensures that the regulator can operate with the necessary authority and resources to address any challenges it may encounter.
Furthermore, the amendment recognises the importance of engaging with suppliers, buyers and other stakeholders to assist the regulator in its functions. Additionally, it acknowledges the crucial role of consumers in the agrifood chain. This recognition is a positive step towards ensuring that the interests of all parties involved are considered and protected.
While these amendments are welcome, Sinn Féin remains concerned that the Bill falls short of providing the regulator with the necessary power and influence to achieve the best outcomes for farmers, producers and consumers. We firmly believe the regulator should have the authority to address issues related to anti-competitiveness and anti-transparency across all aspects of agrifood production.
We are flagging at this Stage that we will submit amendments on Committee Stage. These amendments will seek to grant the regulator the remit to address the competition complaints within the agrifood supply chain. We have consistently advocated for a food regulator with real power and the teeth and influence to protect those farmers within the market chain. We believe farmers and consumers deserve such a regulator that is robust and capable of safeguarding their interests. We will, therefore, continue to push the Government to deliver on this. We hope the Minister might be as open to accepting those amendments as he was with the amendments that were accepted in the Dáil. I think we are in agreement across the House that we need this regulator, but we need the regulator to have the teeth to do the job we want it to do.
I thank Senator Boylan. Before I go to the Minister of State, I welcome the students from Lahardane National School. I believe they are from County Mayo by looking at the jerseys. They are very welcome. To my left, we have some guests from Florida in the USA who are also very welcome to our Chamber today.
I call the Minister of State, Senator Hackett.
I thank all the Senators. I was watching some of the debate on the screen in my office, as I had another meeting. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, had to leave, but I thank Members on his behalf for contributing to today's debate.
It is clear there is widespread welcome for this legislation. Clearly, the impassioned speeches we heard in the House for the agrifood sector and primary producers and about securing that future for those producers are really ringing strong today, which is welcome too. I welcome all the supportive comments with regard to this Bill.
I have noted the comments made today. We look forward to further engagement with Senators on this Bill. I understand it is due back in this House on 28 June, which is not too far away. We will be back to discuss this in greater detail. As mentioned already, this Bill implements a commitment in the programme for Government to ensure fairness, equity and transparency in the food chain by establishing this new authority. The key objective of the new authority, an rialálaí agraibhia, will be to promote fairness and transparency in the agricultural and food supply.
As we heard, it will have two main functions, which are a price and market analysis and reporting function and the enforcement of prohibited unfair trading practices. It will have powers to investigate unfair trading practices such as late payments to suppliers, commercial retaliation and unilateral contract charges.
The Bill provides for the Minister to make regulations to help the regulator regarding the collection of price and market information to address issues of lack of transparency and information asymmetry in the agriculture and food supply chain for agricultural and food products. Those regulations may include provisions to allow the regulator to compel the provision of information for agricultural and food products. The Bill provides for powers to levy fines of up to €10 million on buyers, including retailers, food producers and processors.
I assure Senators that the Government will reflect on the points made today and they will have the opportunity to discuss these in greater detail as the Bill goes through the Stages in the Seanad. Even today, there were one or two comments about the board. The provision is already in the Bill for eight board members, including the chair. It will include a minimum of three primary producers. We certainly will be aiming for that gender balance, which is much needed in all boards at the moment.
Senators will be aware of the challenges farmers and other food producers have faced in recent times, including rising input costs, particularly with regard to energy. This is adding cost and complexity along the whole supply chain. It is more important than ever that we establish this regulator, which will be an advocate and provide a voice for farmers, growers, fishers and other food businesses along the agricultural and food supply chain. I echo the thanks of the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to all the Senators for their engagement on this Bill and to everyone who has helped get the Bill to this Stage. I thank the Senators for their contributions today. We will have further debates as this Bill progresses through the House. I look forward to that.
Question put and agreed to.
When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?
Next Tuesday.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
Committee Stage ordered for Tuesday, 20 June 2023.
When is it proposed to sit again?
Next Tuesday, 20 June, at 1 p.m.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar athló ar 12.58 p.m. go dtí 1 p.m., Dé Máirt, an 20 Meitheamh 2023.
The Seanad adjourned at 12.58 p.m. until 1 p.m. on Tuesday, 20 June 2023.