Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While the Minister was busy looking under the bonnet of the Department of Justice and Equality and trying to defend the poor Garda Commissioner day and night, I was looking under a few other bonnets, including those of CETA and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, for several years. I can assure her that there are problems in these areas. The Minister mentioned beef. No one in his or her right mind would claim that the regulation around the production of beef anywhere in North America, be it the United States or Canada, is as good as ours. When beef comes in from Canada it will be cheap, as is the case with beef from Brazil. Beef from the latter coming into Ireland into wholesale units where it is repackaged and sold as if it was Irish, with the original labels removed. It is produced for a third less than Irish beef because our regulation is much better.

Likewise, CETA and TTIP, when it unfortunately arrives here, will make it difficult for Irish producers of food to compete with Canada and the USA because of their lower standards of regulation.

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