Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 23rd July, 2021.

I, CHARLIE MCCONALOGUE, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 20 of, and paragraph 5(5) (as amended by section 4 of the Milk (Regulation of Supply) (Amendment) Act 1996 (No. 41 of 1996)) of the Schedule to, the Milk (Regulation of Supply) Act, 1994 (No. 25 of 1994) (as adapted by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2011 ( S.I. No.455 of 2011 )), hereby make the following regulations:

1. These Regulations may be cited as the National Milk Agency (Conduct of Elections) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2021.

2. The National Milk Agency (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1997 (S. I. No. 185 of 1997) are amended by:

(a) the amendment of Regulation 8 by the substitution of “nominations” for “nomination papers”;

(b) the amendment of Regulation 9 by the substitution of the number “6” for the number “15”;

(c) the substitution for Regulation 14(4) of the following:-

“14(4) Nominations shall be in such form or forms whether electronic or otherwise and include such particulars as may be specified by the returning officer, and each candidate shall be nominated separately. Nominations for candidates may consist of several forms or communications and may be made by postal or electronic communication or otherwise as may be specified by the returning officer.”;

(d) the amendment of Regulation 16(1) by the substitution of “nominations” for “completed nomination papers”;

(e) the substitution for Regulation 16(2) of the following:-

“16 (2) Nominations shall be delivered or otherwise communicated to the office of the Agency within the time and by such means as shall be specified by the returning officer in the Notice of Election.”;

(f) the substitution of Regulation 17(1) by the following:-

“17 (1) At an election the returning officer shall record the order in which the nominations are received by him and he shall rule on the validity of such nominations in the order in which he received them.”;

(g) the amendment of Regulation 17(2) by the deletion of the word “paper”;

(h) the substitution of Regulation 17(3) by the following:-

“When the returning officer has ruled on the validation of a nomination he shall make a note of his decision. If he rules the nomination is invalid he shall include in such note a statement of the reasons for his decision.”;

(i) the amendment of Regulation 17(4) by the deletion of the word “paper”;

(j) the amendment of Regulation 18 by the deletion of the words “and the names of the registered producers by which the persons nominated as candidates were proposed”.

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

13 July, 2021.

CHARLIE MCCONALOGUE,

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

The purpose of these Regulations is to amend the provision for nomination of candidates for the election of producer representatives to the National Milk Agency.