International Developments: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Michael Collins (II), Cork South-West The international situation is changing by the minute. These developments are a cause of huge concern to the Irish people and are causing huge concern across the world. Threats are being made to innocent people, which is something we as a neutral country must always condemn. We must always support those who are in great difficulty and continue to do that. There are a lot of calls for the Taoiseach not to go to Washington. I do not agree with that. It is a hugely important moment and if we break that, we could break it for the future. That is something this country cannot afford to do. We certainly have to raise concerns. In fact, those concerns have to be raised; there is no issue about that. Staying outside the door is a bad and negative move. I would never approve of that. The problem we have is that a lot of international decisions can be made in a very soft and easier way initially, for example, the Mercosur deal and the appalling carry-on that is going on there. The Minister of State will know that Ciaran Mullooly has been out there fighting, nearly single-handedly, to swing this decision around. Thankfully, the challenge through the European courts will go ahead. Will the Minister of State get the Taoiseach and Tánaiste involved to go out to Europe? I invite him to recognise the democratic decision of the European Parliament because the German leader decided today that it was not democracy at all. We are talking about democracy being thrown in the bin, but that is a true challenge to our democracy. I invite the Minister of State to recognise the democratic decision of the European Parliament today to refer the EU Mercosur deal to the European courts for legal analysis. Our MEP, Ciaran Mullooly, and his team will now work with fellow MEPs to ensure that the targets set out in the programme for Government can be delivered and that our Government will continue to work with like-minded countries to oppose the Mercosur trade deal. We are concerned about reports from Strasbourg this afternoon, which I have talked to Ciaran Mullooly about, about how the European Commission may now decide to attempt some form of provisional implementation of the deal before it returns to the European courts, despite clear parameters and guidelines about such a scenario. The comments made specifically by the German prime minister, Mr. Merz, are: The European Parliament’s decision on the Mercosur Agreement is regrettable. It misjudges the geopolitical situation. We are convinced of the agreement’s legality. No more delays. The agreement must now be applied provisionally. It is now time to get our Taoiseach and Tánaiste going. This is no disrespect to the Minister of State. He is doing his part and doing it as best he can, but it is an astonishing situation that the German leader has decided that he will not agree to this. He thinks he is not going to agree to this, but it is up to the leaders of our country to say this is a red-line issue. He has no choice but to agree to it. A clear and unequivocal statement by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste on the validity and standing of the European Parliament vote today and the objection of Ireland to any provisional implementation is needed. There should be a clear and unequivocal statement at the next European Council meeting that any move to bring forward a provisional implementation of the EU-Mercosur trade deal will now be a red-line issue for this State, and a move to seek support from all other member states in the enforcement of the correct procedures, with direct meetings in member states, attended and verified by all Irish MEPs. Our MEP is out there single-handedly tearing this apart. He has written to every Spanish and Italian MEP, in their language, to tell them what a crisis this will bring to Europe, but some of our European leaders are going to defy the reality of the deal. Sadly, we come back to our own MEPs. What happened to Maria Walsh today? Did she get stung in the finger? She voted against this legal challenge today. We have Fine Gael all over the bloody place on this deal. Regina Doherty and Sean Kelly backed the German leader today. They backed an Ursula von der Leyen deal against the Irish people. --- 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/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21