First, I salute every farmer and person, not alone farmers, who came to Athlone last Saturday. It was a credit to them. The worrying thing tonight is when I see a consultation for 30 days in a factory not far from here. It shows the signs of policy over the last number of years. A factory in a deboning hall is having a 30-day consultation. You do not have to be a professor to know what is coming out of that. Yesterday, in Brazil, soya producers said they are going back into the rainforest and forgetting about their president and what he is doing. They are going to keep at what they are at. A total of 120 kg of hormonal carcinogenic beef came into this country. What more has come in without us knowing? We should be ashamed of ourselves as a country. Someone should be accountable. There should be a case on this and every bit of it, from the unfortunate person who ate it and right through the chain, needs to be exposed. Let me give one very clear message to factories and distributors: the game is on. They will be chased up for what they are bringing into this country from third countries because it is not trusted. Would they like their sister, brother, mother, father, son or daughter to have eaten that meat? Do they want them to be eating carcinogenic meat? Do they want them to be eating meat containing has medicines that have been banned in Europe for 30 years but are not banned in Brazil? For the sake of a Mercedes, we are going to let it through. How do we go about winning the second part of this game, this dirty rotten deal? The first place to start is at home. The first place to start is in ensuring we have our team on side to win this game. Unfortunately for Fine Gael, two of them seem to be offside at the moment. Unfortunately for Fianna Fáil, one of them seems to be offside. If any Members on that side of the House decide to vote against the Government during a budget or a Bill on health, however, the big finger is out, the Whip is imposed and the Member is thrown out of the party. Is there law and order on MEPs? Are the two main parties - I welcome that they came out last week and said “No” to Mercosur - going to allow the people who are representing them in Europe with the EPP or other groupings to vote for this deal? It is time they get their house in order. Stand with the farmers in Athlone and the farmers of Ireland. I ask Members of the Government to stand with the rest of this Dáil and their own conscience. They should think about it: do they want their kids to eat stuff that can cause cancer?

Sentiment score: -0.02