The legal challenge initiated by Sinn Féin MEPs Lynn Boylan and Kathleen Funchion, and The Left group which includes Luke Ming Flanagan, to refer the Mercosur trade deal to the European Court of Justice was narrowly but thankfully won in the European Parliament yesterday. I commend them, and Deputy Kenny here, on their months and years of hard work. I stand here as a rural TD where farming matters, where food security matters and where environmental protection matters. The thing about rural people is that they say what they mean and they mean what they say. This is in complete contrast to the carry-on and the codology of the Government stance on Mercosur, which reached a pinnacle of extraordinary spectacle yesterday when half of Government MEPs voted against the referral to the ECJ test and half voted for it. The referral seeks to ascertain whether the agreement is in breach of EU law. What is it, Tánaiste? Is his party and the Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry Independents for or against the Mercosur deal? It has now been suggested by Ursula von der Leyen that the provisional enactment of the deal should be put through. Is the Tánaiste going to stop that? How can Government stop it if it does not know what side it is on?

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They voted.

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