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Minister McConalogue launches public consultation on establishment of a National Food Ombudsman/Regulator
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie Mc McConalogue T.D., has today announced the opening of a public consultation on the primary legislation needed to establish a new Office of a National Food Ombudsman or Regulator.
A key Programme for Government commitment, the new Office will have a role in analysing and reporting on price and market data in Ireland and will also incorporate Enforcement Authority functions required by the Unfair Trading Practices Directive. In addition to establishing the new Office, the primary legislation may introduce rules that go beyond those included in the UTP Directive.
Minister McConalogue said he wants the Food Ombudsman to bring a greater level of transparency to all parts of the supply chain.
He stated, “I am fully committed to ensuring fairness, equityand transparency in the agricultural and food supply chain. The establishment of the new Office is an important step towards achieving that. The outcome of this consultation will help to determine the principles and policies to be included in the new legislation and the powers to be assigned to the new Office. I encourage all stakeholders to participate in the consultation to help define the future role of the new Office.”
The Minister continued, “I expect to announce shortly the transposition of the UTP Directive as it stands through secondary legislation, a Statutory Instrument. This consultation includes an opportunity for input from the public on additional functions that can and should be assigned to the new Office,“
The consultation can be found at gov.ie - Public Consultation by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine on the functions to be assigned to a new Office (National Food Ombudsman/Regulator)/Equivalent (www.gov.ie) and at ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/NationalFoodOmbudsmanorRegulatorConsultation2021 and will be open until Wednesday 26 May 2021.
A public consultation was previously carried out on the UTP directive itself. An overview of the submissions made under that consultation can also be found at gov.ie - Transposition of Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) Directive (EU) 2019/633 Submissions made to 2019 public consultation (www.gov.ie)