Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)

I welcome all the farmers who are here tonight. If the Mercosur deal is ratified by the European Union, it will sound the death knell for thousands of farmers in Ireland and across the European Union. The European Union's mission statement is to promote the well-being of its citizens by providing freedom, security and justice. This deal is contrary to these principles. Freedom is democracy. Democracy is not being served here. The deliberate splitting of the deal into two takes away the majority vote, thus undermining the process of natural law. Changing the deal from an associate agreement to a partnership one is underhanded, deceitful and a betrayal of the Irish farmers. The importation of 99,000 tonnes of beef and 180,000 tonnes of poultry will wipe away financial security from every family farm in Ireland. It will result in huge losses of income and undermine the prospects and any ambitions of young people to continue farming into the future.

The people of Ireland are not naïve. They know this imported beef and poultry will not be subject to the same high standard as the Irish produce, bringing with it a high risk of banned pesticides, hormones and antibiotics being used and entering our food chain. There is a real possibility of long-term health problems down the line. This is why this deal must be scrapped. This deal is being done with one of the biggest beef barons in the world, JBS, which has been trading on the New York Stock Exchange since June of this year. Coincidentally, it also contributed over $5 million to the Trump presidential campaign. Over 75,000 ha of rainforest has been cleared this year alone. Deforestation is not only destroying the Earth's natural resources of oxygen but also trampling on the human rights of the indigenous people of that area, with some paying with their lives.

The farmers in my county of Wexford are bitterly opposed to this deal. They are fully supported by the Wexford IFA, including the current deputy president, Alice Doyle, and Jer O'Mahony, who stated on South East Radio that farmers are totally and utterly opposed to this deal. I welcome this Sinn Féin motion and I hope it will receive full support from all the TDs in the House.

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