In every deal a country that is a member of the European Union it is giving up some sort of sovereignty in return for something it believes will be of more benefit. Certainly Mercosur does have a marginal benefit to Ireland as a country in terms of our industrial side but it has a massive downside in terms of agriculture. We give out about the EU but we would not have had a nitrates directive and other environmental legislation without the EU. Ireland got a derogation because we were going cap in hand, so there is a little bit of a double standard here. We are asking for permission to put animal excrement into our waterways and to pollute our country so that we can export beef and dairy. If anything, we should be reducing our consumption of beef and dairy because all red meat, even when it is organic, has carcinogenic properties. I take on board what my colleagues before me said with regard to whether we could expect the Brazilian product to be any better. It is going to be worse because of the lack of regulation. It will lead to the cutting down of more rainforests, which are vital to our ongoing survival as a viable species. The European Union has not done enough work in that regard. This is why I support the motion and I support Ireland doing more to oppose Mercosur. In that context, I will just point out that we have the European Union vote and we also have areas where Ireland has mixed or its own competence in certain parts. While the European Union can proceed, even with the qualified majority vote side of things as the deal is passed, there are certain areas where we can veto, delay and block. We should be doing it for the right reasons. It is great to hear people talking about climate change here and the impact this deal will have. I would like to see that level of conversation continue going forward.

Sentiment score: 0.13