John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When defending the controversial Mercosur trade deal, Phil Hogan admitted that Ireland's beef market had been passed up to gain concessions in other areas. The produce of Irish farmers is to be, quite literally, the sacrificial lamb in the much-maligned trade agreement, championed by the former Fine Gael Minister. Astonishingly, Commissioner Hogan told us that the Mercosur deal would protect food and environmental standards. Not even the Government believes that. In a shocking display of naiveite, the Commissioner seems to believe that, having identified the problem of deforestation in Brazil, the EU can set out an agenda under the Mercosur deal to "put them right".

Before and after he was elected, President Bolsonaro could not have been clearer about his views on climate change and Brazil's indigenous people. His comments about women are utterly shocking. His intention has always been to deregulate and open up the Amazon for agribusiness, logging and mining. In August, he fired the head of a Brazilian Government agency that had revealed the significant increase in deforestation in the Amazon. The dismissal of Professor Ricardo Magnus Osório Galvão, a well-respected physicist, came after the Brazilian President claimed that Government officials and workers were damaging the country's image abroad by informing the public of the rate at which the rain forest was being destroyed by him.

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