Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, to the House.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Acting Chairperson and I thank the Seanad for its consideration of the Bill as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny in committee. I thank the Senators facilitating Second Stage of the Bill being taken here today.

As Members will be aware, the current programme for Government includes a commitment to establish as a priority an independent agriculture appeals review panel in legislation and to ensure that the panel includes participants with practical knowledge and experience of farming. I am very pleased to be delivering on that commitment in presenting the Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2024. The Bill seeks to amend the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001 with its primary purpose being the establishment in law of an independent agriculture appeals review panel. The agriculture appeals office was established in 2002 and since its inception the office has handled more than 15,500 appeals and more than 5,000 appellants have received improved outcomes in their cases. During that period there were also 500 reviews of decisions of appeals officers conducted by the director of agriculture appeals. Under the current operation of the 2001 Act farmers who are dissatisfied with the decisions of the Department regarding their participation in a scheme may submit an appeal to the director of agriculture appeals through the agriculture appeals office within three months from the date of the Department's decision. Under section 10 of the existing Agriculture Appeals Act 2001 the decisions of appeals officers may be revised in certain circumstances, specifically first by an appeals officer based on new evidence or facts brought to his or her attention or a relevant change in circumstances since the decision was made and, second, by the director based on an error by an appeals officer in law or in fact.

Currently under the 2001 Act there is no limitation period for seeking these reviews. This means that a review may be sought by either party to the appeal at any time after a decision has been made. Following a review in 2017 of the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001 several recommendations were made, the most significant being a recommendation to establish an independent agriculture review panel to provide greater assurance to stakeholders and to underpin public confidence in the appeals process. The report also recommended that time limits be introduced for seeking a review of a decision of an appeals officer. It is important to note that this review confirmed the independence of the agriculture appeals office as well.

The implementation of these key recommendations requires a series of amendments to the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001 and these are now provided for in this Bill. Many of the other recommendations contained in the 2018 report that did not require legislative amendments have been implemented to date such as the appointment of a deputy director; the engagement with farming bodies involved in the farmers' charter of rights monitoring committee; formal induction training for newly appointed appeals officers; the holding of case conferences; and the holding of remote oral hearings for appellants.

With regard to the independent agriculture review panel, the 2018 report recommended that it should comprise a chairperson and include among its members private individuals with technical and practical expertise of farming, along with the director of agriculture appeals. Following prelegislative scrutiny of the Bill the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine recommended the number of board members on the review panel be increased from three to five where the committee expressed the view that three ordinary members may not always be available to permit the proper functioning of the review panel. I welcome this recommendation as it will serve to enhance the efficiency of the review panel. Accordingly, the Bill has been amended to reflect this increased membership to seven, consisting of the chair, the deputy director of the agriculture appeals office and five ordinary members. Furthermore, to enhance efficiency this Bill provides that the review panel may sit in divisions consisting of the chair and the director or deputy director of the appeals office, and one ordinary member. The same quorum applies to other meetings of the review panel when it is not sitting in divisions. The main purpose of this review panel will be to conduct reviews of the decisions appeals officers based on errors of fact and or law, a function that is currently carried by the director of agriculture appeals. The Bill provides for the transfer of this essential function to the review panel.

The Bill introduces the time limit of six months to seek a review of a decision of an appeals officer in the event of new evidence or facts or a change in circumstances. These are the reviews conducted by an appeals officer not the agriculture appeals review panel. The Bill also introduces a limit of six months for the seeking of a review of a decision of an appeals officer to the agriculture appeals review panel. It is worth noting that the Bill makes provision for the transfer of certain existing appeal decisions to the new review panel, which will be permitted for a period of one year after its establishment. Another recommendation contained in the 2018 report concerns the introduction of a fee for progression of an appeal to the independent agriculture appeals review panel once established. I decided not to implement these recommendations as I believe it would be an unfair burden on farmers. The Bill introduces incidental legal obligations prohibiting the unauthorised disclosure of confidential information by members of the agriculture appeals review panel and the forestry appeals committee.

As an entirely separate measure the Bill also includes two amendments to the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1997. The first amendment removes the existing requirement that the chair or members of the agriculture licensing appeals board vacate their membership on reaching 70 years of age. The second amendment of the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1997 seeks to amend the tenure of the chairperson of the agriculture licensing appeal board from the current default period of five years to a period not exceeding five years. This is to align with the code of practice for the governance of State bodies.

In summary, the main changes to be brought about by the Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2024 will be as follows: the establishment of a new independent statutory body to be known as the agriculture appeals review panel; the introduction of time limits for seeking a review of a decision of an appeals officer; and amendments to the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1997 to remove the age limit of 70 years provided for the chair and members of the agriculture licensing appeals board to vacate their office, and to amend the tenure of the chairperson of the agriculture licensing appeal board from the current default period of five years to a period not exceeding five years.

I will take the opportunity to thank stakeholders who have engaged over the past few years with my Department on the issues at the core of this Bill. I also thank members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine for their valuable work on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill and on their report. A number of the recommendations have been incorporated into the Bill and will start to strengthen and enhance the Bill. I look forward, hopefully, to their support for this legislation to taking it through the other Stages in the Seanad. I thank the officials from the agriculture appeals office, the director Lynda O'Regan and her team including Ruth Kinehan and David O'Loughlin, who worked very hard on this legislation, and also to the legal services division of my Department, and John Kinsella and his team for their work in bringing this legislation together.

Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his comprehensive opening statement. Group spokespersons have ten minutes but if they do not need the full ten minutes I am sure that will be fine with everyone.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister and his officials here today. This is a very important Bill and Fianna Fáil welcomes and supports it. Sometimes as a nation we forget how important the agrifood sector is to all of us. This is not just about agriculture. This is about jobs, families and income. The agrifood sector is our most indigenous industry providing almost 200,000 jobs and accounting for 10% of all Irish exports.

I want to divert briefly. Over recent years I am up here very early in the city and in the mornings I would meet Charlie going to his office at 6 a.m. and I would say "Where are you going at this hour of the morning?". He would tell me he was going on the phone with his officials to talk to some other country about our exports. For me that is really good commitment not alone from the Minister but from the people around him. That is how he has worked in this industry and that is how he has worked so hard on our exports, which is really crucial for a small island country.

Our sector has come through a really difficult period. We have had Brexit, Covid, the war in Ukraine, and the challenge of the new CAP. Again, the Minister and his officials are to be commended because certainly for many of the smaller and medium-sized farms in this country they have brought a really new and innovative area to CAP. We have some teething problems with some of that but the extra money and the extra funding is very important, as is how we can draw down that money.

We have also had the usual weather. The weather has become a huge problem for the farming sector, not just agriculture but horticulture as well. Even this year we were lucky not to get as much rain but we have had a terrible lack of sun, which has created a problem for the amount of fodder that has come off farms.

The Fianna Fáil Party is fully committed to supporting farmers and the food businesses that underpin the vitality of rural villages and towns across this country. Going back a few years farmers were very angry and upset. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has built many bridges with those farmers. The Minister has gone out and met those people, when some would advise him not to go public. The Minister has smoothed across a whole lot of areas to have a better working relationship with the farming community. This is crucial and important to our party. It is really important. I am not saying that we deny environmental issues because we all know that we have to work on environmental issues. Farmers themselves know they have to work on environmental issues.The building of those bridges in order to bring people with you, not to isolate people or make them feel isolated, is important. I know the Minister worked hard to ensure he got the message out to farmers. He is not against them. He is with them, but we cannot agree on everything. We cannot accept everything they want. We have to try to accommodate them as best we can. It is a fickle business, it can be up one year and down the next. It is important that we understand that. Rural people have a good understanding of it. We know the importance of farming and the heartbeat that it is is to rural areas. For future generations, for farming to exist, we have to support it.

Setting this up was another commitment by our own party and by the Government. We have a situation where a Government and a party is honouring a commitment that was made. The Minister has explained the Bill and its legislative area. I will not go into all that again. I welcome it. Deputy McConalogue has done a good job as Minister. I wish him well whenever the general election comes around.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I welcome and support the Bill. It is an incremental step in delivering the programme for Government. I thank the Minister for the work he has done over the past four years. He is a nice man, a gentleman and is totally approachable.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Hear,hear.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I hope his record as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is respected and appreciated. I support the Bill.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senators Murphy and Conway for their support of the Bill and for their generous words about our work in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and on behalf of farmers. I also recognise the collective support at all times in this House and the attention given by Senators, in particular the two Senators here but also many of their colleagues in making sure issues around farming, agriculture, food and fisheries issues have been strongly aired. We have many opportunities to engage and discuss how best to go forward. We have always worked to try to continually improve and progress and do the best we possibly could. One of those steps is this Bill. It was a key commitment in the programme for Government. There is broad support for it. When we were in the Dáil going through Committee Stage there were no amendments to the Bill whatsoever which was a reflection of the collaborative approach we have taken to ensure it is effective and achieves the job as effectively as it possibly can. I am grateful for the strong support of Senators here today. I look forward to seeing it progress through remaining Stages.

Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail)
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When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Next Tuesday.

Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.