Mr. Matt Carthy:

I welcome the Commissioner. I attended the public meeting this morning and I listened to the assurances she has given and to the assurances of other Commissioners, including the Irish EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan's assurances on beef and the fact that hormone-injected beef will not be accepted into Europe. I have heard those assurances and I have read every document released by her office. Those assurances are not included in the mandate. It strikes me when I read the reports from America that one of the strongest proponents of TTIP currently lobbying the Obama Administration is the meat exporters' association, the very organisation that has been lobbying to have hormone-injected beef included in the agreement. Has our Government at any time suggested that beef be removed from the TTIP mandate? Likewise, has our Government suggested at any stage that ISDS be removed entirely?

The Commissioner knows from the public consultations she has carried out that this is the biggest issue with citizens across Europe. A total of 97% of the respondents to her public consultation indicated that they had an issue with ISDS. Today we heard lots of plaudits for our trade relationship with the US which, we are informed, is better than any other EU member state. Yet, we are the only EU member state that has never had an ISDS mechanism with anyone. It strikes me that if we are going for best practice then we are the best practice. Let us follow Ireland and not have ISDS; let us trust our own courts and our institutions, including the European institutions, to protect investors, certainly, but also workers, our standards and our citizens. Has our Government suggested to the Commissioner at any stage that maybe these ideas might be put forward?