Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to debate this deal. As per the Order of Business yesterday, it is essential that further time is set aside next week to thrash out this dangerous deal for the Irish agricultural sector and ensure that there can be proper examination and questions. As a party, Fianna Fáil believes that trade is good for the country and has been very supportive of the recent Canadian and Japanese deals.

When we look at this deal, and the impact it will have on the beef sector in particular, there is no doubt it will not benefit the Irish agricultural sector. It represents a tremendous political failure by our Government. It has not ensured that this deal is a balanced one from our national perspective. It is certainly is not that.

We are different from many other European countries in that the domestic agricultural sector, and the beef sector in particular, plays a significant part in our economy. It plays a disproportionate and exceptionally valuable part in our economy, unlike in other European countries where the agricultural sector is much less significant. I welcome the representatives here today from the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, the deputy president, Mr. Richard Kennedy, and the livestock chairperson, Mr. Angus Woods. They are here because, as the Minister, Deputy Creed, heard over the last few days, they are extremely worried about the impact this deal will have on the future livelihoods of the farmers whom they represent.

I know the Minister indicated this morning that this deal will have to go through legal processes and will then have to go before the Trade Council for qualified majority voting. There is no doubt, however, that what is on the table now is almost 100,000 tonnes of beef. That would have a massive impact on our agricultural sector. This agreement has been delivered at a high political level between the European Commission and its counterpart in South America. The Irish Government representative on the Commission, Mr. Phil Hogan, was a key part of that process.

I know the Minister will tell us that he has made representations in recent times about the threat this deal poses. From the questions we asked here in the past, however, there is no doubt that it was clear that the Government had accepted the suggested figure of 70,000 tonnes for beef imports that was on the table until some months ago. The answers to the questions we asked clearly show that was something that the Government had accepted. We now see that what is finally delivered is 100,000 tonnes of beef imports. The EU's own impact assessment, which was published in 2016, shows that the impact of beef trade deals would lead to a hit of some €5 billion on the EU beef market and a cut of up to 16% in European beef prices.

The farmers here today and those all over the country who have been expressing their concerns in the last few days will tell the Minister very clearly that this is a hit that they simply cannot take. This situation has to be examined in the context of Brexit as well. European consumption of beef is relatively static and Ireland supplies 102% of the Europe Union's beef needs. If we take Britain out of that equation, then that figure would go up to 116%. We know what that would mean in respect of the pressure on farmers and the downward spiral in beef prices that would cause.

The other key issue which makes no sense is the impact of this deal on climate change. This deal has been the subject of negotiations for 20 years and it predates many of the climate change targets and the threats that will result from the effects of climate change. This deal, however, has come up with an offering that involves taking beef from South America. In Brazil, for example, beef is produced with four times the carbon footprint that it is in Ireland. This is at a time, as we heard earlier, when the European Commission is providing funding aimed at reducing domestic beef production in Ireland.

The beef offering within this deal is something that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, and the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, have to resist at all costs. They have to bring about some change in that part of the deal because our agricultural sector cannot take such an impact. It is a tremendous failure that we have found ourselves in this position.

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