IFA president Francie Gorman has called on the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to give the Agri-Food Regulator the additional powers it needs to compel business to hand over price and market information.

The regulator can currently only seek this information, meaning that businesses can chose not to provide it without facing any repercussions.

Chair of the regulator’s board Joe Healy wrote last September to then-Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue looking for the office’s powers to be strengthened.

Gorman told Minister Heydon to “act now” and grant compelling powers to the regulator.

“The current powers are clearly not sufficient. IFA is aware of a number of a large retailers that did not provide information to the Agri-Food Regulator when asked,” he said.

The IFA has said that regulator’s office should be able to report on prices and markets across all sectors in the agri-food supply chain, as is a key function of the office.

“This office is critical to providing a more even playing pitch for farmers and smaller suppliers in the food supply chain and to lessen the impact of a few large retailers or multinational food companies,” the association president added.