Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for the time. I support the motion. In conjunction with the motion, a seed has been sown by the quiet people in rural Ireland as the Beef Plan Movement has brought people together to come to Dublin city at a time of year they would otherwise be at silage, hay or other work. People from all parts of the country have given their time to show their disgust at what is going on in the farming sector. This is not just about Mercosur and I have listened for the past while as Members spoke about climate change. In the past three weeks, we have seen a document that will screw these farmers out of €15 in every €100 when they make silage or hay. This is a time factories are abusing farmers and those farmers are being treated in a disgusting fashion in the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, negotiations. Brexit is around the corner as well. The final kick in the teeth is the European Union decision on the Mercosur deal.

Seven, eight or ten years ago, when this country was on its knees, we were damn glad to rely on the agricultural industry for €3.5 billion of exports from the beef sector. Everybody welcomes the fact that our country has started to do better but those farmers seem to be the forgotten people now. Instead, we will do a deal with countries where there is no animal traceability and there are high rates of tuberculosis. It has been proven that these countries have sold rotten meat to other countries. We know these countries are cutting areas of forestry the size of a football pitch every minute but this deal is meant to be all in the name of tackling climate change. This beef will be hauled halfway around the world, no more than what we are doing with some of our biomass. Do we think that is good?

Europe is trying to eliminate some of these types of systems so it can be a clean area in comparison with everyone else. People have spoken about "Mercs for meat" but before we speak of climate change, we should speak about people, families, livelihoods, living, communities and areas in rural Ireland that must survive. These are areas where 100,000 farmers rely on the beef sector and where some families work but many farmers put bread and butter on the table not alone for their families but for the shopkeeper and butcher down the road and the local hardware merchant. We must remember that this is not just about the 100,000 farmers. What are we to do? Shall we make a theme park out of the west of Ireland or, indeed, the rest of Ireland because we are the green and clean economy? Are we to let someone else produce the stuff?

There seems to be an agenda driven by Europe that we should plant much of this country and forget about this type of farming. We must remember that we are heading into Brexit and we may have to borrow €5 billion in our next budget. We are looking at people losing their livelihoods because of Brexit and this deal. If a person does not have a livelihood, he or she cannot contribute to an economy and will need funding. In the past few days I have heard about the great fund of €1 billion that Commissioner Phil Hogan has procured. Is that €1 billion going to save 27 countries in Europe? We should remember that our exports from beef alone are worth more than €3 billion so Phil can shove his €1 billion where the sun does not shine. It will not save our beef industry. We need to put a floor under it and get real. We must believe that people are more important in our country than winking and nodding to other bureaucrats in Europe doing their deals. We must stand up for our people in each part of the country now in their hour of need. I have heard people saying we must look at how this will go over the next few years. Our MEPs and Councils of Ministers, along with everybody in these Houses, must stand together as Irish people to fight for farm families once and for all.

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