The Government is very much out of step with the farmers in my constituency, Wicklow-Wexford, who marched in Athlone on Saturday. The Government could have stopped Mercosur but never made any effort to block it over the 25 years it was in the making. There was no real effort to reach out to other countries to form a blocking minority. Just before Christmas, Sinn Féin had a Private Members' Bill in the Chamber. Ministers refused to state then whether they were opposed to it. The eleventh-hour vote against the rotten deal was welcome but ultimately meaningless. Many people saw it is a cynical manoeuvre. The Government waited in a cowardly manner until Italy had changed course before opposing it. I say "oppose" in inverted commas because it has now made it very difficult to defeat. It is still possible but, due to Government inaction over the years, it is an uphill battle, with us having just 14 MEPs out of 720 in the European Parliament. Sinn Féin has been opposing Mercosur on this side of the House for years. We had a motion in the Chamber seven years ago on it. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were never really opposed to it. The Government signed us up to the Lisbon treaty, which removed Ireland's veto on trade. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil signed us up to a negotiating mandate that allowed the European Commission to negotiate this rotten deal, knowing full well it would have negative consequences for Ireland. It is bad for anyone who eats beef or chicken, bad for farmers and bad for the environment. As Deputy Carthy mentioned, Phil Hogan deceived the people, stating beef was off the table in negotiations when it clearly was not. It became in the end a battle between Irish beef and German beamers and we know which takes precedence for von der Leyen. The Government has one last opportunity to redeem itself in the coming weeks. It can outline the steps it intends to take to stop Mercosur beef entering the Irish food chain alongside Irish meat, which is the best in the world. Will it support the legal action? Will it mandate its MEPs to oppose this deal? Will it actively engage with other MEPs to do so?

Sentiment score: -0.18