Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I must also register my disgust with the Mercosur-EU trade deal. Farmers find it unbelievable. We need only look at the reports today of the surge in shares in Brazilian meat packers on the back of the announcement of this trade deal to know that they will ramp up production in South America and as people have pointed out, pull down rainforests and produce their beef in a less carbon-efficient manner. We are told that the focus is on 99,000 tonnes of meat that will be allowed in under this deal but what will happen to the 270,000 tonnes that are already coming in? Surely this meat will also be subject to the reduced tariff. This deal will floor our beef and suckler cow farmers. The farmers have been set up. They are regulated to the hilt and have been following rules on everything from quality to traceability to the environment and now they will be left to suffer and for what? This is coming from an EU that practically preaches to us about the environment and the green agenda. The green agenda has been very short-lived when it comes to the mighty euro and the mighty dollar. How many German cars sold to South America will be battery-powered or electric vehicles or is that defined? Did it even matter? Everything we do now is supposed to be carbon proofed and made carbon efficient yet I do not hear one word about carbon efficiency or carbon emissions in this deal. It is a disgrace on the part of the EU and exposes the whole green charade as a fraud set out to hammer farmers. We are going to hammer them on the green agenda and now they will be hammered on price.