I welcome all the farmers in the Gallery. They have been out protesting for the past week. It is thanks to democracy in this country that they can do so in very difficult circumstances for quite a lot of those farmers. I welcome that they are here tonight. They are carrying out their basic human rights to put food on the table - good clean Irish food - as they have done for the past decades. That is being challenged every day of the week now for the past few years. Tonight we stand firmly with the farmers of Ireland who should not have to be up in the Gallery of this House. They should be at home running their farms, not sitting here looking down on us, waiting for decisions that should have been made long ago. Last week, I stood with IFA members outside Bord Bia headquarters where protests have continued day and night. Their message is clear: their confidence in Bord Bia has been deeply damaged. The controversy around the sourcing of Brazilian beef has only widened the divide between farmers and those meant to promote their produce. It does not stop there. We import over 740,000 tonnes of low-quality, poorly traceable Mercosur feed, undermining our own fully traceable Irish grain sector. We all know now that Brazilian beef treated with carcinogenic hormones entered the Irish food chain, and the Mercosur deal would also allow in up to 180,000 tonnes of poultry produced under weaker standards. What about the children of this country? Is this the standard we are willing to accept for them, a food chain where banned carcinogenic hormones have already entered Ireland through imported Brazilian beef and where more cheaply produced meat could follow under Mercosur? Parents expect the Government to protect their families, not expose them to risks created by weaker import controls. On top of that, imported British straw is risking the spread of blackgrass, a destructive weed that could devastate Irish tillage land if allowed to take hold. These farmers have been raising concerns for weeks. Their protest escalated to the point of occupying Bord Bia headquarters, driven by deep frustration at what they describe as inaction, warning that each day this drags on further erodes their confidence in the organisation. They should not have to be here tonight. They should not have to sit in the Gallery looking down on this Chamber, waiting for basic respect and common sense. They have far better things to be doing like running the farms that keep the country fed, employed and sustained. Farmers meet some of the strictest environmental welfare, safety and traceability standards in Europe, yet they are undercut by foreign feed, exposed to banned hormones entering our food chain, threatened by invasive weeds and let down by delays in updating rules that could protect Irish products and jobs. Their patience is exhausted. I ask the Government, when did it become anti-Irish and so anti-farmer? That is how farmers feel - abandoned, ignored and undermined. They should not have to protest outside Bord Bia and occupy the office and they certainly should not have to spend their evenings in the Dáil begging for fairness. It is long past time for Government to truly listen and act decisively in support of Irish farmers, Irish beef, poultry and grain and Ireland's future and immediately remove the chair of Bord Bia.

Sentiment score: 0.02