A "food ombudsman-type" office is a step closer to being established, according to a spokesperson at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, is to seek approval from Cabinet on Tuesday (March 22) to prioritise the drafting of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022.

This bill will establish a new, independent, statutory authority to be known as the Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain.

The objective of the new office/food ombudsman will be to promote fairness and transparency in the agricultural and food-supply chain, the spokesperson said.

It will do so in two ways:

By performing a price/market analysis and reporting function. This is to meet the requirement of the European Commission to strengthen agricultural and food market transparency by improving the collection of statistical data necessary for the analysis of price formation mechanisms along the agricultural and food-supply chain;
The new office will also be responsible for ensuring that fairness is observed in the agricultural and food-supply chain by becoming the state’s designated enforcement authority for enforcing the rules on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food-supply chain.

The office, which is expected to pass through the Oireachtas before the summer, will be led by a board and will have a chief executive officer.

It will operate independently but under the aegis of the DAFM, similar to bodies such as Bord Bia.