Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will come into the House and criticise China, as I am doing now. I agree with Senators Wilson and McDowell that we should be doing more trade with Taiwan. Are we, however, going to take €6 billion from China and then say "Goodbye" to the market? Are we also going to tell the farming community that we are going to say "No thanks" to the new markets opened up last month? Is that what the Senators really want? Let us have a real debate or we might as well fold up our tents and go home. I know we campaign in poetry and govern in prose, but either the Senators want to have a sustainable beef and agriculture sector or they do not. If all they want are headlines in The Daily Mailevery day, then let us do that and we can all fold up our tents and go home. We would have no agricultural society, no farmers-----