Well done to Ciaran Mullooly MEP for organising the demonstration in Athlone, which I attended as a member of the Fine Gael Party and as a TD for Longford-Westmeath and to support the local Longford and Westmeath IFA organisations that I have worked with for a long time. I wish to highlight a couple of things. There was an Oireachtas committee meeting held with the IFA and the Irish Farmers Journal around mid-December to discuss the issue with the beef coming in from Brazil. There were very few Opposition Members at that and over 50% of the people at it were Fine Gael Oireachtas Members. A lot of people have got very vocal in the last couple of weeks but they were not vocal previously. The Government has been very clear about our concerns regarding the EU-Mercosur agreement for a long number of years. We put into the programme for Government that we would not support it in the form it was in and we would work with like-minded countries in opposition to it. That is what we did as a Government, collectively, represented by our Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon. We worked with like-minded countries and when Italy got whatever sweetheart deal it got, our Minister went out to Europe batting in the middle of last week to work with other like-minded countries to make sure there was support, and a number of countries voted against this agreement. I support the calls that our MEPs, when it comes to the decision in a number of weeks’ time, support the decision that has been made by the Government. Ultimately, the Government has concluded that the recent additions and the commitments were not sufficient for our agricultural sector, so it has stood behind the agricultural community throughout the country. We voted against the deal, which we committed to doing in the programme for Government passed here 12 months ago, so to say we only made decisions in the days leading up to last Friday is totally and factually incorrect. It is in the programme for Government and it is being supported by the Government. The other parties that are shouting and throwing their flags, as they did last weekend up in Athlone, are only coming to the table now. The Government has been committed to supporting the agricultural industry here. We have seen it in the work done by the Minister, Deputy Heydon, in securing a three-year derogation when people did not feel it would be got and I am confident in the ability of the Government and our representatives going out to Europe that we will get a strong and fair CAP deal for the farmers of our country.

Sentiment score: 0.40