Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: recognises:

— the threat posed to Irish agriculture, the environment and human rights by the proposed Mercosur Trade Agreement;

— the benefits of Irish agriculture to the Irish economy and its importance to rural communities throughout the country;

— that Irish farmers play a vital role as custodians of the land and promote biodiversity and work to protect the environment;

— that Irish agricultural products is acknowledged for its high standards and is exported around the world;

— the very high environmental standards that Irish and European Union (EU) goods are produced to and regulations that Irish and EU farmers must adhere to in relation to animal welfare standards traceability;

— the need for sustainable and fair international trade agreements to develop new markets for Irish and EU products;

— that tariff reduction can lead to positive outcomes for the public, when implemented in a fair and sustainable way;

— the need for produce to be imported into the EU to adhere to the same environmental and animal welfare standards and traceability regulations as producers in Ireland and the EU must adhere too; and

— the various agreements, declarations and frameworks which the Irish State is a signature to, including but not limited to the Rome Declaration on World Food Security, the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework;

notes with concern:

— that the European Commission (EC) concluded negotiations with four Mercosur countries on 6th December, 2024 on the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement;

— that on 3rd September, 2025, the EC split the EU-Mercosur Agreement into two separate proposals - meaning that national parliaments will have no say on the ratification of the interim Trade Agreement element of the Partnership Agreement;

— the impact that importing 99,000 tonnes of beef and 180,000 tonnes of poultry into the EU will have on Irish and EU farmers;

— that the Mercosur Agreement is at odds with EU and Irish domestic climate legislation and will lead to greater deforestation and environmental destruction in the Mercosur countries;

— that the EU has delayed implementation of Regulation 2023/1115 on deforestation in part to aid the ratification of the Mercosur Trade Agreement;

— that imported agricultural products from Mercosur countries are often produced using toxic chemicals that have been banned in the EU for decades, and a 2024 EU audit found that Brazil cannot reliably trace or guarantee hormone free beef, yet the Mercosur Agreement will allow exporters to self-certify compliance with EU standards;

— that the Mercosur Trade Agreement will further incentivise human rights violations against indigenous peoples in the Mercosur countries and the theft of their land in order to obtain more land for cattle farming;

— that the bilateral safeguard proposed by the EC only applies for a transitional period of 12 years and the apparent weakness of the mechanism when it comes to protecting farmers;

— that the triggering mechanism for the bilateral safeguard does not apply to situations of risk to public health, environmental destruction or indigenous dispossession;

— that the Mercosur Trade Agreement would undermine our food security objectives and threaten generational renewal; and

— the lack of engagement by the Irish Government with other EU member states in relation to the threats that the Mercosur trade deal poses to Irish and EU farmers and the substantial environmental, human rights and public health risks that the Agreement poses; and

calls on the Government to:

— publicly reject the Mercosur Trade Agreement as it threatens the future of Irish agriculture and the Irish family farm and poses huge threats to the environment, public health and human rights;

— mandate its representatives at Council level to vote against the Mercosur Trade Agreement at its meeting in December 2025; and

— work with likeminded member states to form a blocking minority at Council level.

The Mercosur trade deal is bad for Irish agriculture, European consumers and the global environment. It is a deal that has been spoken about for a long time. It has been negotiated between the EU and the Mercosur countries in Latin America for over 25 years. Those negotiations are now over. There are no more negotiations for this deal. The deal is the deal. It is done, or so we are told. It will be voted on in an EU Council meeting in the next few weeks.

The final EU-Mercosur trade agreement has been widely criticised for harming Irish and EU farmers, undermining climate goals, potentially affecting public health and bypassing democratic scrutiny.

This is a bad deal for Ireland and a bad deal for the EU. The threat to Irish agriculture is very real, especially to our suckler and beef industries and to our poultry sector, which is important and under huge pressure the moment, as the Minister will be aware, with the bird flu pandemic sweeping across the country, potentially causing huge harm. I am sure he is aware this deal is bad for Ireland as this has been reported over the years.

As it currently stands, Mercosur beef is being imported into the EU. In total, approximately 105,000 tonnes of beef and 68,000 tonnes of frozen beef are being imported into the EU annually. Some 58,000 tonnes of this beef has a tariff of 20% on it at the moment under the Hilton quota. The rest has a tariff of between 40% and 50%. The Minister can therefore imagine how cheaply Mercosur countries are producing this substandard beef when they can make profits like this selling beef at a 40% to 50% tariff. Under the Mercosur deal, 58,000 tonnes will have zero tariff and a further 99,000 tonnes will be at a 7.5% tariff. Anything over that will be up to 40% or 50%. There is no limit to the volume of beef that can come from Brazil into the European Union. There is simply a limit to how much will be tariff free or have a low tariff. That is what this deal does.

The Minister and I are aware of the issues with South American beef. Animal welfare standards are considerably poorer than in Ireland and the rest of the EU and there is no traceability of cattle and no tagging of animals at all. Ireland and the EU have the highest standards of animal welfare and food security in the world and this agreement weakens the EU's food safety checks and auditing powers, which will allow importation of products produced with banned pesticides, hormones and antibiotics. This increases the risk of unsafe agricultural products entering the EU market.

This deal is disastrous for the environment. It is seen as incompatible with the EU's Paris Agreement commitments. It is expected to increase exports of deforestation-linked products such as beef and soya, driving the destruction of the Amazon and raising greenhouse gas emissions. The EU's attempt to appease member states that are opposed to this deal by proposing safeguards and a so-called handbrake clause does nothing to protect Irish or EU farmers. There would have to be a decline of 10% in the EU market price to trigger the safeguards and there is a high legal threshold that requires proof that the decline in price is a consequence or result of imports from Mercosur. This safeguard is not preventative. It addresses harm only after it has been caused and does not fix the structural issues, including unequal production standards and environmental costs. If this deal is ratified, it will result in the loss of jobs in Irish agriculture and we will see further decline in the Irish suckler industry, which is already under huge strain. We have seen declining numbers in the suckler herd, particularly in the north west and along the western seaboard.

We are trying to promote generational renewal in Irish agriculture but there is no point in incentivising young farmers to take over the farm on the one hand and pulling the rug out from under them on the other by supporting the Mercosur trade deal. Irish farmers cannot compete with cheap beef from South America that is substandard, with no traceability regulations and poor animal welfare standards, produced at the cost of the environment.

Irish farmers cannot be sacrificed for German cars to be sold in South America. The Government has neglected its responsibility when it comes to defending Irish farmers and has sat back. It has a wait and see approach to the Mercosur trade deal. Its response has always been that it is opposed to the deal in its current form. Well, negotiating is over. The deal is not going to change and in the next four weeks the Government must stand up for Irish farmers and reject the Mercosur trade deal. This deal can only be stopped if the Government engages with like-minded member states and forms a blocking minority at EU Council level.

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