Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

He congratulated Mr. Mandelson and hailed his work and the great deal he achieved. It makes me wonder. These policies, and the importing of foods from South America, especially Brazil, and other countries, will put the health of future generations here at risk. They will have sub-standard, cheap, untraceable, unlabelled, imported foodstuffs.

The Minister's text reads that the EU already provides substantial preferential trade "assess" to developing countries. The Minister is making asses of the Irish farmers. It is a misprint in the text but it is a fortunate one because it describes aptly what is happening. These proposals make an ass of the farming community.