Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-27
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Linda Nelson Murray (FG), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I thank the MEPs for coming. My focus is on small businesses and always has been. I would like when we take over the European Presidency that we have a focus on Irish business. When it comes to insurance, for example, we have not had a new entrant into the Irish market for 11 years to provide public liability insurance. I would like to know what the MEPs can do on that issue to help small businesses.
The issue of counterfeit and fake branded goods entering the Irish market is becoming a major consumer safety problem, particularly for children's toys. I appreciate that there was a new toy safety regulation in 2025. That was enacted in January but there is a four-year waiting period before it is fully enacted. We have thousands of parts coming into Ireland that are not safe for children. That is something that needs to be looked at. The Irish toy market is worth between €300 million and €600 million per year. It looks as if approximately 10% of the goods that are coming in are counterfeit goods, which is bad for Irish business.
I would also like to mention hot school meals. I wrote a 48-page report on them. I visited suppliers the length and breadth of the country and schools. The Joint Committee on Education and Youth had numerous witnesses and stakeholders in to discuss the issue and never once did I hear that there was Brazilian beef in hot school meals. Some €300 million is spent on hot school meals in Ireland. That goes to companies. A total of 3,200 primary schools and 500,000 students avail of the programme. How dare Mr. Mullooly sit there and say that the hot school meals programme is using Brazilian beef? How dare he scaremonger? The Society of St. Vincent de Paul last year had 112,000 requests for food assistance. There is a massive problem with child food poverty in Ireland. What Mr. Mullooly has just done is scare parents, principals and teachers by talking about Brazilian beef in hot school meals. Like my two colleagues, I want him to withdraw that comment. I hope he does not get any coverage out of it because it is simply not true. Until he can come to the Upper House and prove it is, dún do bhéal.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-27