Mercosur Trade Agreement: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13
============================================================

Conor D. McGuinness (SF), Waterford

Sinn Féin has been clear and consistent for years in opposing the EU–Mercosur trade deal. It is bad for Irish agriculture. Farmers, exporters and rural communities are telling us that. It is also bad for food standards. Every expert is telling us that and the evidence that has already been mentioned indicates it. It is bad for rural communities. Is mar Thadhg an dá thaobh atá an Rialtas, atá ag cur an dallamullóg ar mhuintir na hÉireann agus ar an bpobal tuaithe. For years, farmers have warned the Government of the damage this deal would do to income, confidence, the future of generational farming and the brand Irish farmers and Irish Governments have worked hard to create and export around the world. They warned how it threatened to flood the European market with beef produced to standards that would be illegal here – beef linked to deforestation, weaker animal welfare rules and lower labour protection. Those warnings were dismissed by those opposite me. We were told concerns were overstated, and many Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs, TDs and Senators have been saying in the media in the past 24 hours how these concerns were overstated, but not one of them has sat here in this Chamber for this debate. That tells its own story. Not one Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael backbencher has made it their business to be here in the Chamber today. In fact, there is nobody from Fianna Fáil in the Chamber today-----

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-13