Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

I raise the issue of the Mercosur trade agreement, which has certainly not gone away. We are in a position over the weekend where we see that Larry Murrin, the chair of Bord Bia, is also the CEO of a company that was providing Brazilian beef. It is simply incompatible with his role in the promotion of Irish food products to remain in that position. That is the first point. We also had good news from the European Parliament this morning because the Mercosur trade agreement has been referred to the European courts because of the undemocratic nature in which it went forward. This vote happened today. It was The Left group in the European Parliament, with which Sinn Féin is affiliated, that initiated this proposal to bring this forward. We are now in a position where the Mercosur trade agreement will have to go to the courts and the undemocratic way in which the Commission put this forward will have to be dealt with. However, all is not lost. The cute boyo routine that this Government went into over the past number of months - they were saying at home that they were opposed to it and yet they were doing nothing about it - is now very clear. We are in a position where the Government has an opportunity to support what is going on in the European Parliament and to hold to account the Commission that has done this in an undemocratic way.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21