Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Everybody is on team Ireland. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, is on team Ireland but he fell asleep when he was on the pitch. Is Commissioner Hogan on team Ireland? The Commissioner is the cheerleader for this deal but I have noticed that there are more Fine Gael tanks being placed on his lawn than we will see in Washington later today. Commissioner Hogan is going to become the Government's scapegoat for this.

Our beef farmers, poultry farmers and pig farmers are on team Ireland but they are not feeling the team spirit at this stage because they have been thrown to the wolves. So many people are on team Ireland in terms of climate but they see the Government acquiescing to a deal that rewards climate change deniers, those who destroy rainforests and people who adhere to low standards.

I agree that team Ireland has the highest possible standards. Our beef, our poultry and our pigmeat are world class because of those standards, which cost money and make our products slightly more expensive compared with those of countries that do not have standards.

By acquiescing to this deal, we are rewarding the absence of standards. We are rewarding climate change deniers and abandoning our core agricultural industry. Farmers are not really feeling part of the team at the moment. Team Ireland is a lovely concept but those left on the substitutes' bench or indeed outside the stadium are not part of the team. Our beef, poultry and pig farmers do not feel as if they are in the stadium and they certainly do not feel there is anybody playing for them at the moment.

See this speech in context