I strongly welcome this motion. The Government’s last-minute decision to vote against the Mercosur deal was a cynical and opportunistic move. To take a decision only once it was certain the vote would pass shows an utter lack of political spine when it comes to standing up to the European Commission. This failure of leadership is at complete odds with the people the Government claims to represent. On Saturday, almost 30,000 people from every corner of Ireland rallied in Athlone to say “No” to Mercosur. Many of those people have supported parties like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for generations. For what? It was for the purpose of more crumbs from the EU table just to survive and keep struggling. I do not want those in our farming community to just survive and get by; I want them to have a viable future. I say this for the next generation, for children like my boys growing up on our family farm and for every child who wants to keep up the tradition of farming and providing for communities. It is about not being forced off the land as a result of Government politics. The devastation of Mercosur will not just hit beef farmers because it will also shatter communities across rural Ireland, communities this Government has taken for granted for far too long. As we saw on Sunday, people are waking up to the Government’s false promises. Last week, the Food Safety Authority issued a recall of Brazilian beef on sale in Ireland – beef containing banned cancer-linked hormones. That recall was not a joke. The meat was tested last October and had long been bought and consumed before the warning was finally issued. How can the Minister of State expect ordinary people to have confidence in a system that allows this to happen? Is he going to stand up and tell us he is happy to buy and eat this product? God knows what is in it. Take a product I have to hand as an example and look at the labelling. It is a well-known brand, the so-called “Finders of Fine Foods”. Instead of using Irish beef, it chooses Brazilian beef, produced to standards decades behind our own. You would need a magnifying glass to read the country of origin on the back of the product. It is shameful and deceitful.

Sentiment score: 0.07

After all the health warnings and after seeing the evidence, would the Minister of State be happy to feed this crap to his family? He has sat on his hands for far too long. It is time to take a stand and ensure Ireland actively supports this legal challenge.

Sentiment score: 0.22