Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----or human rights, indigenous peoples or commitment to International Labour Organization, ILO, regulations. There are, in the headline agreement, provisions relating environmental issues, indigenous people and ILO regulations, which is a relatively new departure in negotiating trade agreements. Therein is the opportunity to nail down the detail in every sentence, with the i's dotted and t's crossed, to make sure we use those provisions to make sure that our farmers operate on the same legal basis as those of other member states, that ultimately this trade agreement works for us like other trade agreements, and there will be fair competition. Under other trade agreements, we have opportunities to export 65,000 tonnes of beef to Japan, 30,000 tonnes to Mexico and 10,000 tonnes to Vietnam. They are the type of opportunities we seek after the EU concludes trade agreements to see what share we can get. The intervening period must be used to seek a balance in those trade agreements to make sure we nail down in detail the terms and conditions under which they access our market.

Deputy Ferris and others alluded to the track record of the Government with regard to the agricultural sector in general and the beef sector in particular. I dispute this. True to fashion, playing the man rather than the ball, the Commissioner, Phil Hogan, was also attacked by speakers. I do not intend to name them. Would Deputies fancy their chances more with an agricultural Commissioner from Malta or Bulgaria-----

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