Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry to offend by putting the facts of this matter on the record. Yet, here we find ourselves faced with this deal. The Taoiseach's position is that if it is good for Ireland, we will support it. That is the stated position of the Government. All of the main farming organisations and stakeholders across the island oppose the deal.

They do not need any long-winded analysis or any fig leaf. They are well aware this is a bad deal, particularly in respect of beef, but also for the poultry and pigmeat sectors. Their criticisms are well-founded because tariff-free quotas amounting to 99,000 tonnes of beef, 180,000 tonnes of poultry and 25,000 tonnes of pigmeat are bad news for each of those sectors.

They are bad news in and of themselves but, when combined with the sustained decline in beef prices over the last number of years, and also, as the Minister has acknowledged, the unfolding risk of Brexit, farming families across this island are quite right to call the Government out on this bad deal. It can be best summarised as a sell-out of Irish farmers and their families, and of rural Ireland as a whole. Commissioner Phil Hogan, the Government's man in Brussels, despite all this, describes this deal as fair and balanced - those are his words and they beggar belief. It also beggars belief that at a time when this Dáil has declared a climate emergency, and from a Government that has encouraged people not to eat beef, unless, it seems, it is Brazilian-----

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