I move: That Dáil Éireann: condemns: — in the strongest possible terms, the catastrophic failure of the Irish Government to prevent the advancement of the European Union (EU)-Mercosur Trade Agreement, despite many years of warnings, repeated opportunities to build a blocking minority, and repeated appeals from Irish farming organisations, environmental experts and Sinn Féin; and — the role of the Taoiseach, who not only failed to challenge the Mercosur process, but who previously led the charge in misleading the public on the Lisbon Treaty, dismissing concerns at the time about weakened democratic processes, control over EU trade policy, reduced veto powers and diminishing national leverage; recognises that: — the Government's job was to stop the Mercosur Trade Agreement, and that they have failed utterly in this task; — the Irish Government failed to stand firm, refused to engage seriously with like-minded EU member states, and refused to use Ireland's leverage when it actually mattered; — at the eleventh hour they have cynically announced, in an act of political cowardice, they will vote against the Mercosur Trade Agreement, only after the deal is effectively locked in at EU level; — this failure reflects a broader pattern of passivity, complacency and unwillingness to challenge the European Commission on behalf of Irish farmers, Irish environmental obligations, and Ireland's strategic interests; and — the Irish Government was wrong to dismiss public concerns about the Lisbon Treaty, and that warnings at the time about weakened democratic controls over EU trade policy and reduced national veto power have proven correct in the context of Mercosur; notes with concern: — the catastrophic impact that importing 99,000 tonnes of beef and 180,000 tonnes of poultry into the EU would have on Irish and EU farmers, depressing prices and destabilising rural livelihoods; — that the Mercosur Trade Agreement runs entirely counter to EU and Irish climate legislation and would incentivise further deforestation, biodiversity loss and environmental destruction in Mercosur countries, particularly Brazil; and — that agricultural products imported under this agreement are frequently produced using toxic chemicals banned in the EU for decades, and the 2024 EU audit confirmed Brazil cannot reliably trace or guarantee hormone-free beef, yet the Mercosur Trade Agreement would allow exporters to self-certify compliance with EU standards; further recognises: — the grave and immediate threat posed to Irish agriculture, the environment, food safety standards and fundamental human rights by the proposed Mercosur Trade Agreement; — the enormous benefit that Irish agriculture provides to the Irish economy and its essential role in sustaining rural communities, family farms and local industries across the State; — that Irish farmers are custodians of the land, actively promoting biodiversity, protecting soil and water quality, and working to improve environmental sustainability; — that Irish agricultural produce is respected worldwide for its high quality, traceability and the rigorous standards to which it is produced; — the exceptionally high environmental, labour, animal welfare and food safety requirements placed on Irish and EU producers, that imported agri-food products must also meet if there is to be any fairness in international trade; — the need for sustainable, equitable and enforceable international trade agreements that support, rather than undermine, Irish and EU agricultural sectors and rural economies; — that tariff reductions can benefit consumers only when they are implemented in a fair, transparent and sustainable manner, and not when they create a race to the bottom on standards; — the absolute necessity that all imported products meet the same environmental, traceability and animal welfare standards as those required of producers in Ireland and across the EU; and — the various agreements, declarations and frameworks to which the Irish State is a signatory, including the Rome Declaration on World Food Security, the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework; and calls on the Government to: — immediately publish a full and detailed account of all legal, political and diplomatic actions it has taken, or intends to take, to oppose the ratification of the Mercosur Trade Agreement, and to outline definitive steps to ensure that Mercosur beef cannot enter the Irish food chain under any circumstances; — actively and publicly support the legal action taken by members of the European Parliament against the ratification of the Mercosur Trade Agreement; — mandate all their party Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to vote against the Mercosur Trade Agreement, and launch an urgent diplomatic initiative to build a blocking minority among like-minded EU member states; and — engage immediately and directly with other MEPs across the political spectrum to urge them to reject the agreement, and to work with civil society, farming organisations and environmental groups to build a broad coalition of opposition at EU level. I understand I am sharing with other Members. The reason we are here this evening, as the Minister is aware, is that the Mercosur trade agreement is detrimental to Irish agriculture, the people who live in rural Ireland and people who live across the entire island of Ireland and across the European Union because of the detrimental impact it will have on food safety. Food safety is primary in all of this. We see product coming in from Mercosur countries which is well below the standard we expect Irish or European farmers to meet. For that reason, we are totally opposed to the Mercosur trade agreement. Our motion this evening calls out the Government on its inaction in respect of this. On the one hand, the Government has suggested it is opposed to the deal but, on the other, it does not do anything to block or stop it when it goes to Europe. It had ample opportunity over recent years to build an alliance with other countries across Europe to block it. It failed to do so. I will bring the Minister of State back to July 2019, when Sinn Féin had a motion to oppose the Mercosur trade agreement here in the Dáil. The then Government, a Fine Gael Government, tabled an amendment to it making a nonsense of it. That amendment was actually defeated and the Dáil gave a mandate to the then Government and subsequent ones to build alliances with other parties and countries across Europe to block the deal. They utterly failed to do so. We can see this from the utterances of the current Government in recent weeks. At every turn, it has spoken about the positives of the agreement and has said what can come from it that could be good. It has said it could be good for other sectors and referred to there being safeguards in place. All of this is a simple and total betrayal of the Irish agriculture sector and European consumers. We recognise that the whole system in place for trade deals requires a vote in every parliament. What happened in this case, however, was that the proposed agreement was split into two parts so this would not happen. There is a challenge to go to the EU in respect of that. What we are doing this evening is calling out the Irish Government on its complicity in all this. We also recognise that we have to have a commitment from the Government to publish the political, diplomatic and legal steps it has taken to block the Mercosur trade agreement. It should prove it has done what it has claimed to have done over recent months, because the reality is that nobody believes it has done anything. Now we are left with an agreement that is going to go through. Only at the last minute, when the Irish Government recognised a majority was going to vote in favour of it and that a blocking minority was not going to be in place, did it turn heel and decide it was going to vote against it. The day before, when the Taoiseach was in China, he more or less said to everyone that Ireland was going to vote for it. How can the Government be so wishy-washy in here and tell us it is going to Europe to do the opposite of what it has been suggesting? Nobody believes it. That is reality and it is why we have this motion this evening and are calling on the Government to work with other countries and put pressure on all the MEPs across Europe to vote against the Mercosur trade agreement when it is before the European Parliament and build alliances everywhere we can to block it to protect the livelihoods of Irish farmers. The Government often mentions that only 99,000 tonnes of beef and 180,000 tonnes of chicken will come in. The reality is that this is the door slightly opened. The next time there is a crisis in Europe, owing to disease or something else, we will see the floodgates opened and more and more inferior product coming in from Mercosur countries. For these reasons, we simply have to hold the Government to account. It did not play the game fairly. It pretended it was opposed to the deal when in reality, and as everyone knows, it worked hand in glove with its friends in Europe to get it through, basically for Micheál Martin to look good to Ursula von der Leyen. That is what is happening here, and everyone knows it. We are here this evening to discuss this motion. I have read the Government’s counter-motion. It is a self-congratulatory fairytale pretending the Government has done this, that and the other to protect Irish farmers and Irish livelihoods and that safeguards are in place. Nobody believes anything has been done effectively to build an alliance to block this Mercosur trade agreement. It was the Irish Government’s responsibility to block it but it has failed miserably and basically betrayed the Irish people, Irish consumers and Irish farmers in respect of it. That is why we have this motion this evening and why we are holding the Government to account. We saw thousands of farmers protesting over this situation in Athlone last Saturday. People are angry across the entire country. It is not just farmers and people in rural areas but also others across the entire country, because they recognise what is happening. It was the very same thing with the fisheries. The Government failed to stand up for an indigenous industry and it let it go to the wall. We simply need the Government to make the proper commitment to block the deal from here on.
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The Government did nothing. Zero.
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As well as it did in fisheries. It did a great job there.
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Do not mention the fisheries deal.
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Was that a trade-off?
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At the nub of this issue is the reality that everybody knows, across Europe and the world, that the standards we are expected to meet in Europe when it comes to food production and the standards that are expected in Brazil and other Mercosur countries are not the same. We all know that. They are decades behind when it comes to food quality standards. The Minister of State knows that, I know that and everybody knows that and yet that is set aside. Public health is set aside for what? For the profit of a certain number of corporations. I know there are certain jobs and all of that but that comes to the nub of it. In the Minister of State's summing up earlier he got to what is the issue here. The issue here is that he said on one hand the Government tried to build a minority to block the deal but at the same time was trying to work with people to improve the deal. You cannot do both.
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It is as simple as that.
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It is a contradiction if the Government says it wants to improve the deal but it is also saying to the same people it also wants to block it. The Government cannot do both and we all know that. We hear it back. We do not live in a vacuum. We hear what goes on in the country and we hear what goes on in Europe also. The truth is, on one side of the Minister of State's mouth over here he was saying he wants to block the deal but when he went out to Europe and European meetings were happening with Irish officials they were wishy-washy, saying well, if we could improve this and if this little thing could be done it might help. It was all about getting the deal improved so that it could be palatable for the Irish Government to sell. That is exactly what was being done. The Taoiseach, when he was in China the other day, thought that he was at the point that it was nearly palatable, and he was sort of saying that a lot of things have improved and everything is good now. Basically, what he was saying was that the Government was going to vote "Yes" to it - the Minister of State knows that - and only at the last minute was the U-turn done. That is the reality. Everyone knows that. We will put the past behind us. We will put the Government's duplicity and all its nonsense behind us and we will start a new day tomorrow. Will it tomorrow make sure that every MEP elected in Ireland will vote against this agreement? Will the Minister of State make sure they vote against it? Will he make sure his Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael colleagues who are Government MEPs vote against it? Will he do that or will he not? That is a mark of what his commitment is. Will he make sure that he works with other countries across Europe to block this deal? Will the Government publish what it has done in the past and what it intends to do in the future, as stated in the motion we put before the House, or will it not? At the end of the day, we know where the Government stands. The Government thinks it can ride both horses; it cannot.
Sentiment score: 0.14