{"id":15078,"date":"2026-01-20T12:46:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T12:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=15078"},"modified":"2026-01-20T12:46:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T12:46:56","slug":"whitmore-to-introduce-bill-to-grant-greater-powers-to-agrifood-regulator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/whitmore-to-introduce-bill-to-grant-greater-powers-to-agrifood-regulator\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitmore to introduce Bill to grant greater powers to Agrifood regulator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Social Democrats food spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore will today introduce the Agri-Food Regulator (Amendment) Bill 2026, which would grant the AgriFood regulator greater powers to investigate price gouging.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking ahead of its introduction, Deputy Whitmore said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFamilies around the country are enduring an immense struggle just to put food on the table, with prices for staples continuing to soar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government has said it will use every lever at its disposal to tackle rising prices. Yet, it has ignored repeated pleas from the AgriFood regulator to give it more powers to investigate price gouging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon said he was finally going to give the regulator the power it needs to investigate skyrocketing prices \u2013 but it recently transpired that his measure will not be ready until December.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is just the latest example of a complete lack of urgency from the government when it comes to tackling the cost-of-living crisis. As an Opposition TD, I have been able to draft legislation that would give the regulator the power it needs and introduce it 12 months before the government can get its act together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CSO\u2019s Consumer Price Index for December 2025 shows that butter, milk and bread, among other essentials, all cost far more than they did the year previously \u2013 and prices are continuing to rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose struggling to put food on the table cannot wait another year before the introduction of these powers. I\u2019m asking for cross-party support for my Bill today so that the regulator can get on with its job of tackling gouging and addressing skyrocketing prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>January 20th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social Democrats food spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore will today introduce the Agri-Food Regulator (Amendment) Bill 2026, which would grant the AgriFood regulator greater powers to investigate price gouging. Speaking ahead of its introduction, Deputy Whitmore said: \u201cFamilies around the country are enduring an immense struggle just to put food on the table, with prices for staples [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[650,268,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cost-of-living","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Whitmore to introduce Bill to grant greater powers to Agrifood regulator - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-to-introduce-bill-to-grant-greater-powers-to-agrifood-regulator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whitmore to introduce Bill to grant greater powers to Agrifood regulator - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Social Democrats food spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore will today introduce the Agri-Food Regulator (Amendment) Bill 2026, which would grant the AgriFood regulator greater powers to investigate price gouging. 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