A food regulator ‘in name only’

This bill provides for the establishment of the new independent statutory body, An Rialálaí Agraibhia, or Agri-Food Regulator, which will promote fairness and transparency in the agricultural and food supply chain.

The regulator will have powers to levy fines of up to €10m on buyers, including retailers, food producers, and processors, who engage in unfair trading practices with farmers and other suppliers.

The office will also have powers to investigate breaches such as late payments to suppliers, misuse of trade secrets, commercial retaliation, and unilateral contract changes.

Fail primary producers

While Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has confirmed a number of amendments to the bill, concerns still remain around it, with Ms Cairns criticising that the new office will not have access to information from the whole supply chain, which she said will “fail primary producers”.

“Successive Governments have allowed and facilitated a massively inequitable system for decades that has seen a few big players become incredibly rich off the backs of family farmers, inshore fishers, meat factory workers, and small producers,” Ms Cairns told the Dáil. “The most common feature across all production in this country is inequality. There is a startling asymmetry of power.”

She said that the new bill falls short of the “much-needed reforms” that would see a “properly resourced, independent regulator with the powers to implement genuinely fair practices”.

“The Government parties’ predisposition to light-touch regulation in the finance and construction sectors, which has spelled disaster for ordinary people, is now being applied to the food sector,” she continued.

“This is a half-done job that still favours the big players at the expense of small farmers, food producers, and inshore fishers.

“The fundamental flaw at the centre of this bill is the failure to establish an independent regulator. The bill claims that it is what it is doing, but it clearly is not. It lacks the powers of a genuine regulator.

“The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has too much influence on this body, and it will be too closely linked to the sector.”

Regulator 'in name only'

She said this new body is a regulator “in name only”.

“Regulators must have the capacity to develop and implement regulations without restriction, as well as commensurate powers to investigate potential violations and implement the law.

“This new office needs to have the capacity to create regulations. This point relates to the larger lack of independence.

“When I think of a regulator, I think of an individual officeholder with expertise and staff to support his or her work in upholding the law and acting in the public interest. Instead, there will be a board of eight people, all appointed by the minister, with at least two being primary producers. This is not a regulator; it is another quango.”

She added that the establishment of the new regulator is “just a box-ticking exercise, providing for a new office that will supposedly oversee trading practices while the ingrained structural problems will continue to put farmers and fishers out of business”.

Hamstringing

Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy told the Dáil he remains concerned that what Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue did with the bill amounts to “hamstringing” the regulator before it has even been formed.

“First, through limiting its remit to business-to-business relationships and, second, by clearly stating that he does not see a role for the regulator in terms of competition concerns or investigating cartel-like behaviour,” Mr Carthy said.

“Sinn Féin believes that to be effective, the regulator must have a view of the full breadth of the agri-food supply chain.

“That means it must include business-to-consumer relationships and, in the same vein, it must have a role regarding competition complaints and, especially, regarding cartel-like behaviour.”

Fill the gap

Minister Charlie McConalogue said that there is “undoubtedly” a gap in the overall infrastructure of the agri-food supply chain and in the sector.

“This office will fill that gap and meet that need,” he said.

“It must be an advocate, a pusher, and an enabler to ensure that farmers get a fair deal and that family and primary producer incomes are very much at the centre of all of our thoughts.”

He said it is important that farmers “can be assured that there are adequate protections in place” to ensure they are treated fairly in their business dealings along the agri-food supply chain.

He added that too often, when there is a squeeze on the system, it is the primary producers, such as farmers, fishers, and horticulturists “that have to absorb all the pain”.

This is because the margins “can be maintained at other levels of the supply chain as they have capacity to manage it”.

“Farmers ultimately get squeezed.”