Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the 11 Members for their contributions to the Order of Business. It is not surprising that the Mercosur trade agreement has been raised by Senators Ardagh, Boyhan, Conway-Walsh, Norris, Hopkins, Murnane O'Connor, Mulherin, Devine and Humphreys. I agree that it is a headline political agreement, but there is nothing agreed as such and nothing has been signed off yet. This has been 20 years in the making and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been trying to mitigate the impact on Irish and European agriculture and farmers. Senator Humphreys is correct. I ask all Members to read the agreement and not come into the House with a one-off headline. Many of us are disappointed at what is proposed. If one wants to make political point, let us look at who has been negotiating and who has been involved and at what the Ministers for Agriculture, Food and Marine and Business, Enterprise and Innovation, and the Taoiseach have been saying to our European counterparts. I will come back to that point.

The most important point that was raised is that the initial proposal related to 300,000 tonnes of beef but this has been reduced to 99,000 with the tariff rate quota, TRQ being split between frozen and fresh meat, and it will take seven years. The other point is that Government through the Taoiseach and the two Ministers have articulated and raised legitimate concerns regarding what is being proposed. Senator Ardagh referred to the economic assessment. The Taoiseach said last Sunday such an assessment would be done. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment made the same point in the Dáil earlier - one could not have an economic assessment done until one knows what is being proposed. That was the initial reaction from the Taoiseach. Today------