Joe Healy, chair of the Agri-food Regulator board, shone a light on a major flaw in the legislation setting up the office when he wrote to the Minister for Agriculture late last week requesting powers to compel rather than seek information from the Agri-food supply chain.

This was timely given the active engagement by the Office at this week’s Ploughing Championships, including the participation of its CEO Niamh Lenehan in an Irish Farmers Journal Agribusiness briefing.

In truth, Joe Healy’s move comes as little surprise to industry observers. The weakness of the regulator’s office in securing information from across the supply chain was something raised by this publication in an interview with Niamh Lenehan at the end of her first 100 days as Agri-food Regulator CEO in March.

She emphasised that she believed in a partnership approach in seeking information, but she did point out that she didn’t “want to be wasting your time and I am certainly not going to be wasting my time either”.

Market information

The letter from Healy to the minister looks to strengthen the Agri-food regulator’s power from one of “seeking” of information to “compelling” the provision of necessary price and market information from relevant businesses.

This follows the failure of some retailers to provide non-published information to the regulator as part of an investigation they carried out on egg packers and retailers earlier this year.

None of this is the Agri-food Regulator’s fault and the reality is that it had to play the hand it was dealt as best as it could.

It was on this basis that it proceeded, but when it released the eggs report with only published data available, it had to act – otherwise its credibility would have been damaged.

By writing to the minister asking for the legislation to be amended, the Office of the Agri-food Regulator has passed responsibility on the matter back to the minister and indicated that the legislative tools it has been given are not fit for the job. This is a problem that should have been foreseen.

It was clear as the legislation made its way through the Dáil that it was, at best, weak. If it was possible to universally secure all the necessary pricing and other market data on a voluntary basis, then the need for a regulator wouldn’t have existed in the first place.

If the legislation is being revisited just over a year after being signed off by the president, then it should be taken as an opportunity to go further.

Opportunity to do more

Compelling the participants in the supply chain to release information that is requested by the regulator is better than it having to plead for it as has been the case up to now.

However, the Irish Farmers Journal has consistently advocated for adoption of the US model where real-time information on the processing part of the supply chain is available, and updated during the working day.

Of course, with a general election around the corner, that could prove to be a challenge in the short term but if it cannot be delivered during this Dáil term then it should be a priority for the next agriculture minister.

Minister McConalogue invested much in steering the legislation that set up the Office for the Agri-food Regulator through the Dáil and took the plaudits when it opened for business last December.

That the regulator’s board chair felt the need to write to the minister before the end of the first year of operation saying that the tools given to regulator aren’t adequate to do the job takes the shine off the minister’s achievement.

However, what is done is done and while there may be a temptation to say we told you so, it serves no practical purpose in delivering for Irish farmers.

What has to be done now is that the minister quickly responds to Joe Healy’s letter and delivers what he is asking in the first instance – the power to compel participants in the supply chain to give the Agri-food Regulator the information it is asking for.

Ideally, the minister would go further towards the US model but that would be a much slower process involving much consultation and debate.

Farmers need an Agri-food Regulator with teeth, not an ineffective quango that has to plead for information to be released to them.

By highlighting the shortcomings of the legislation to the minister, the regulator has done Irish farmers a service and it is now over to the minister to give it the powers needed to do the job.