Mercosur Trade Agreement: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

At the nub of this issue is the reality that everybody knows, across Europe and the world, that the standards we are expected to meet in Europe when it comes to food production and the standards that are expected in Brazil and other Mercosur countries are not the same. We all know that. They are decades behind when it comes to food quality standards. The Minister of State knows that, I know that and everybody knows that and yet that is set aside. Public health is set aside for what? For the profit of a certain number of corporations. I know there are certain jobs and all of that but that comes to the nub of it. In the Minister of State's summing up earlier he got to what is the issue here. The issue here is that he said on one hand the Government tried to build a minority to block the deal but at the same time was trying to work with people to improve the deal. You cannot do both.

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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