Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the Mercosur trade deal. Two years ago, the Taoiseach's party supported a Dáil motion that described it as a bad deal for Ireland and for the planet. The Sinn Féin motion also included a provision that this motion be binding on future governments, which includes the Taoiseach's Government.

Let us be in no doubt the Mercosur deal is still a bad deal for Ireland and for the planet. It is a trade deal that has at its core a glaring contradiction to the policies and politics set out by European leaders this week at the climate change conference. It fundamentally and spectacularly undermines climate action targets and actively encourages a hyperintensfication farming model that pushes out family farms. The deal's investment court system is a reincarnation of the much-maligned investor-state dispute settlement mechanism that prioritised global companies' profits above the public good. That public good extends to climate action by the state. Indeed, leading environmentalists, as the Taoiseach knows, have warned that the Mercosur deal will challenge the European Green Deal and others believe it is simply incompatible with European climate commitments as set out.

Speaking at COP26, the Taoiseach warned that the country's economic survival depends on what he called radical climate action. My question to him is, therefore, straightforward. If such radical action is vital to protect the economy from climate change, why has his Government not yet rejected the Mercosur deal?

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