I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate. At the outset, I acknowledge the huge efforts the Minister of State made personally, along with his team, in the negotiation field in the past few weeks. Every effort was made by the Minister of State and his team to try to get a good deal for Ireland. What has really happened here is a ganging up of other European countries. We often talk in this political arena about how there can be paralysis of decision-making in the United Nations and in that whole political sphere. When it comes to fishing, there certainly was a ganging-up against Irish fishermen the other night. Neither the State, the Minister of State nor his Department can be faulted for that. What is at stake here is very serious. If we are to believe the analysis of the past few days, the fallout of this could see up to one in seven jobs in fishing being lost, with a €94 million loss and a huge shock to the industry overall. Several things are happening in the sphere of agri-fisheries at the moment. The nitrates derogation has been extended for a three-year period. The Mercosur deal will potentially be voted on in the coming days. I am no expert whatsoever on fisheries. We need the context as to where this development fits with all the other issues that are subject to negotiation at this time. There is a real fear among the farming community that in spite of Ireland saying vociferously time and again that it has a whole set of concerns regarding Mercosur, the position still is not clear. There is even some talk that member states could vote on it by the end of the week. To put Mercosur in context, 85% of farming in my county of Clare is based on suckler beef. It is the beef heartland of Ireland. As the Minister of State knows well, most cattle reared in County Clare are on pasture for seven or eight months of the year before being housed and fed silage concentrates or hay, although the latter is less common these days. This produces a superior quality of animal. There are Bord Bia checks, annual tuberculosis tests and genomic testing. A high-quality, healthy, environmentally produced beef animal then enters the food chain after approximately two years. That contrasts very sharply with the type of animal being reared in the South American system, where rainforests are being felled en masse, artificially creating pasture where it never existed, and cattle are housed for month upon mouth and fed with grain and concentrate, fattening them artificially to get a higher market price. None of that sits congruently with the Irish system of a grass-fed animal making its way through the local mart as a weanling, then being fattened up and entering the beef chain after two years. It is wrong under any lens, whether the lens of quality of beef or the environmental lens, that Ireland should even consider signing up to the Mercosur deal. Everything is of consequence here. A good deal was struck for Ireland in the past few days on the nitrates directive. Then we were sold a pup by other European states in terms of fishing quotas. In a matter of days, potentially, if it is not postponed until February, we will have a vote on Mercosur. I asked earlier at Questions on Policy or Legislation what Ireland's position is on Mercosur and, in particular, how these three different negotiated schemes fit together. People will say they are separate, as they undoubtedly are, but that is not how European politics works. Different member states will have their advisers, ministers and negotiating teams horse trading in these negotiations. Given where we had been at with the nitrates directive and where the fisheries deal ended up landing despite everyone's best efforts, I fear we will sign up to Mercosur. I strongly caution against it.

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