Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, said he would oppose and do everything he could to thwart the Mercosur trade deal. This is in the context of the programme for Government. The Minister said he would look at ways and mechanisms to do so. That is a contrary position to the messages I heard from the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, when I raised the matter during Leaders' Questions last week and from the Taoiseach also. I refer to the matter in the context of climate change. Last week when the Taoiseach met his colleagues at the European Council, they had extensive meetings, albeit on the question of nominations to fill various positions in the EU institutions. What is surprising and worrying is the degree to which the European Union seems to have sold the pass on climate change. The election of Mr. Bolsonaro as President of Brazil has ushered in a rapid and reckless acceleration of the deforestation of Amazonian rainforest which will have significant negative impacts on the climate. With all of the rhetoric and plans in Europe, it is extraordinary that this was not a show-stopper for Mercosur. This reckless deforestation, as evidenced by the media, is an incontrovertible fact and its aim is to make way for the beef that will find its way to Europe. Areas of rainforest are being cut down at a rate of 1 ha per minute and the European Union is incentivising that behaviour. The only way to disincentivise it is to tell leaders in South America, in particular the Brazilian leader, that EU Heads of State and Government say there will be no deal unless they stop what they are doing immediately. Any talk of signing up to the Paris accord is nonsense. The reality is much different. Has the Taoiseach had that discussion with EU Heads of Government?

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