ICSA president Dermot Kelleher
The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) has called for senior officials at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to appear before the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Agriculture and the Marine to answer questions on the remit and powers of the proposed National Food Ombudsman.
ICSA president Dermot Kelleher said: “The ombudsman role as constituted under the Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) Directive does not have sufficient powers to make a transformative change for beef farmers.
ICSA has long campaigned for a regulator with robust powers and this must include the powers to forensically audit the books along the food chain, starting at processor level.
ICSA president, Dermot Kelleher. \ Donal O Leary
Senior officials at the Department of Agriculture must appear before the Joint Oireachtas Committee to answer questions on the remit and powers of the proposed National Food Ombudsman, ICSA president, Dermot Kelleher, has said.
“The ombudsman role as constituted under the unfair trading practices directive does not have sufficient powers to make a transformative change for beef farmers,” Kelleher said.
“It is accepted that additional legislation will be required to deliver the results farmers need by strengthening the powers of the new entity. However, we now need clarity around what legislation is actually being considered.”
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is “currently taking a two-step approach” in the establishment of the office of a National Food Ombudsman, according to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue.
Speaking at the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) online annual general meeting today (Thursday, January 28), the minister highlighted that the EU’s Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) Directive must be transposed by May 1, 2021.
Noting that the current Programme for Government included the commitment to establish a National Food Ombudsman to enforce the UTP Directive “and to have a specific role in analysing and reporting on price and market data in Ireland”, Minister McConalogue said:
December 14, 2020 1:54 pm
The establishment of a new authority dubbed the National Food Ombudsman was a commitment included under the Programme for Government agreed earlier this year…but what is the progress on this commitment to date?
This was a question put to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue by independent TD Carol Nolan.
In his response, Minister McConalogue said:
“The Programme for Government includes a commitment to ensure fairness, equity and transparency in the food chain by establishing a new authority called the National Food Ombudsman to enforce the Unfair Trading Practices [UTP] Directive, which must be transposed into Irish law by May 1, 2021; and to have a specific role in analysing and reporting on price and market data in Ireland.”