It is astounding that Niamh Lenehan, the new agri-food regulator, has been in office since May and is not yet functioning, IFA president Tim Cullinan has said.

Cullinan was speaking in front of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture on the challenges facing the fruit and vegetable sector.

“What we have seen is food deflation for 10 years of 9%, and this is the first year we’ve seen a small food inflation of 6% or 7%. We all know where the costs were.

“We were looking at fertiliser with 160% inflation and to say that we have a food regulator and that she’s not actually functioning at this point in time, is nothing short of a disgrace,” Cullinan said.

The exclusion of the mushroom sector and the strawberry sector from the recently announced horticulture crisis scheme was described by Cullinan as “beyond belief”.

He argued that there needs to be a margin over the cost of production for horticultural growers and retailers must be part of this, which the food regulator should enforce.