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Power to impose levies
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49. (1) The regulator may make regulations prescribing levies to be paid by persons who are subject to obligations as buyers under the Agri-Food Unfair Trading Regulations.
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(2) Levies under subsection (1) shall be designed to relate only to costs incurred by the regulator in performing functions relating to unfair trading practices.
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(3) Regulations under subsection (1) may be made only with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.
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(4) Regulations under subsection (1) may provide for, in particular—
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(a) activities or other matters in respect of which a specified levy is payable,
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(b) the persons, or classes of persons, who are required to pay a specified levy, which may include—
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(i) retail, wholesale, co-operative, food manufacturing, food processing and food service businesses,
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(ii) businesses relating to horticulture, cereals, oils, fishing, aquaculture, beef, poultry, other meats, dairy, eggs or other sectors of the agricultural and food supply chain, and
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(iii) classes of person based on overall turnover (and the regulations may specify a level of turnover below which no levy is payable),
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(c) the amounts of a specified levy,
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(d) periods for which, or dates by which, a specified levy is to be paid,
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(e) penalties payable by a person who fails to pay a levy on time,
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(f) the keeping of records, and the making of returns to the regulator, by persons who are liable to pay a specified levy, and
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(g) the collection and recovery of levies.
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(5) Where the regulator proposes to make regulations under this section—
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(a) a draft of the regulations shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas, and
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(b) the regulations may not be made until a resolution approving the draft has been passed by each House.
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(6) Regulations under this section may require or permit the regulator to refund the whole or a part of a levy paid, in specified circumstances.
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(7) The regulator may, by proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction, recover as a debt an amount of levy payable under regulations under this section.
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