The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has been accused of favouring processors and large conglomerates over primary producers.
Independent TD Michael McNamara claimed that there is a “track record” of senior civil servants from the DAFM who have gone on to work for processors and in the food sector in general.
The deputy made the accusations in a recent Dáil debate on the Agriculture and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue is, the deputy claimed, setting up a regulator to “fail” as it will not have the legal powers that will be required to succeed.
“I believe he wants to do the right thing, but I am less certain about some areas of his department, given the track record of senior civil servants from that department who have gone on to work for processors and in the food sector generally.
“It seems to me to be evidence of how skewed the department is in its approach in favour of processors and large conglomerates, rather than in favour of primary producers,” the deputy said.
DAFM
Minister McConalogue described the deputy’s comments as “very unfair” and a “slur” saying that everyone in the department is working on behalf of the agriculture sector and farmers in particular.
“We have one of the best records in this country of serving farmers, of delivering payments and of working to make sure that service is the best in Europe,” the minister told the deputy.
Of the approximately 3,000 employees in the department, a “minuscule number, maybe one or two”, may go and work somewhere else, according to Minister McConalogue.
“It is unfair to use that as what I regard as a slur on all those who are working at the moment with the objective of serving farmers. I do not think that was particularly fair,” the minister said.
The deputy claimed there is a “propensity for people at the very top of the department to find their way into top jobs with the processors and dairy co-ops in the sector they had previously regulated”.
Food Supply Chain Bill
Deputy McNamara claimed that none of the farming organisations he had spoken to are satisfied that the bill has sufficient powers “to bring about the transparency the minister says he wants for his regulator to succeed”.
“If you want the regulator to succeed, however, you should give that person the powers to succeed and do not put him or her on a pedestal to fail without the powers necessary to require retailers and processors to outline the prices they are being paid.
“Only then will we know who is making the money. A lot of money is being made, but we do not know who is making it,” the deputy said.