Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. This is a very useful meeting. As a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I propose to focus on agricultural issues. First, in the context of these discussions and, in particular, the US presidential election, when will these negotiations be brought to a conclusion? I got the impression from the Minister that he and the European Union agree that the overall concept is a very good idea. The Minister reiterated many times all the positives he sees arising out of this agreement. This leads to the following very obvious question. When it comes to the final meeting of Ministers on these negotiations, how will the decision be made and will it be made by qualified majority voting? In other words, will the interests of the overall supersede the interests of particular member states on especially sensitive issues?

In regard to food, there are 130,000 farmers in Ireland and multiples of that number of people involved in the food industry here. The biggest issue relating to food is that of standards in GMO and hormone-free beef, as discussed earlier. While we might sell quality cuts to America, so too might another beef producer if the price is high. If, however, the price of beef collapses and the other producer has had a good production season, will there be restrictions on that producer putting vast quantities of beef into Europe, thereby undermining our market because 95% of our beef is sold on the European market?

How can we be sure that, as we near the end line, the agricultural interests in particular of this country will not be sold out in the interests of getting a big deal?