Post European Council Meeting: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-14
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

Briefly, on that last point on Horizon Europe and PEACEPLUS, the discussion is currently under way on the multi-annual financial framework. That is discussed at my council every month and they are two of our most important objectives, along with of course, the Common Agricultural Policy. It is our number one objective to get a fully funded and separate Common Agricultural Policy. The European leaders had a brief discussion on the multi-annual financial framework and they will ultimately decide the budget. In the meantime, we will continue the negotiations and that will climax during our Presidency. I can absolutely assure Deputies the Common Agricultural Policy, Horizon Europe and the PEACEPLUS programme, which benefits the North of Ireland and the Border counties, are very important.
Regarding Mercosur and our MEPs, we do not have a whip on our MEPs; our MEPs can make the decisions. Barry Cowen wrote a really good article where he said he was against it and was voting against it but, in fairness to him, he set out the pros and cons. If an MEP was to vote for Mercosur, they would take into account what the Deputies are saying about beef, I have no doubt, but they would also take into account what may be the most important pharmaceutical plant in the world at present, Eli Lilly in Kinsale, in the constituency of Deputy Michael Collins, which will have a big drop in tariffs as a result of this. They will probably think about Liebherr in Killarney. Again, if that company is exporting to Mercosur countries it will experience a huge drop in tariffs and that will create and sustain employment in the Deputies' constituencies and constituencies all over the country.

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