Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As a young Minister, I am on team Ireland, as are the Taoiseach, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton. I expect all Members of this House and of the Seanad are also on that team.

It is fully acknowledged that having a balanced international trade deal is important for our economy, including our agriculture sector. There is no point in having a benefit for one part of the economy and not having an equal benefit for another. That is why the agreement, which includes a significant tariff rate quota that will allow beef imports from Mercosur countries, is a disappointment to every one of us. That is why we have been working for the past number of years to bring it from where it was to where it is now. As the Deputy will agree, however, there is still a long way to go.

We worked hard with our colleagues in Europe to ensure that we will try to mitigate the impacts of what is on the table today. The agreement does not only have negative connotations for Ireland and Ireland's beef sector, it has those for other EU countries and some others who have aligned with the EU. While it is disappointing, the amount of time that it has taken for us to get where we are shows, in part, out efforts to try to mitigate what was originally a 300,000 tonne quota. That quota has now been significantly reduced. The Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Creed, Commissioner Hogan and others who have expressed their views, including the Deputy - I genuinely believe we are all on team Ireland here and on the same side - need to work together. My party and the Deputy's party need to use their connections in Europe to ensure that we get both a better result and better a transposition of what is a headline agreement into the legal text. That includes carbon-proofing the production methods used by all of those who are operating on a level playing field. It also includes taking cognisance of the governance in our beef and poultry sectors which is second to none. It further includes the quality and the delivery of the standards with which we have become synonymous internationally.

What is agreed today is not satisfactory from our perspective. Equally, it is not satisfactory from the perspective of others across Europe. The Taoiseach was fairly clear yesterday and the day before when he stated that we will work over the next couple of years with the influence that we have collegially with other countries and also with our Commissioner - he has done a tremendous amount of work to reduce the impact in recent years but the job is not done yet - to ensure that we continue to reduce the impact on our beef and poultry sectors. The agreement is currently a headline document and it will take at least two years - if the 20 years it has taken to get to where we are today are anything to go by, it could effectively take longer - for us to agree and align with those who are in similar positions to ourselves in order to ensure that we get a level playing field in respect of governance, carbon production and quality with regard to the sectors concerned.

There is no disjointedness and there is no spin. I genuinely believe that all politicians in this House should be on team Ireland and that we all should be working for the best outcome for our beef sector, but also for all of the other sectors that will benefit from the positive parts of Mercosur.

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