Beef Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-19
============================================================

Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West

I thank both Deputies for raising this issue, and I share their concerns with regards to antimicrobial medicinal products being used and the impact that would have. Deputy Newsome Drennan highlighted well the potential health impacts in that regard. As Minister of State with responsibility for nature, I know the level of deforestation in Brazil. The production of beef is the biggest cause of deforestation in Brazil. That is something that does not sit well with me. That is just to add my personal view.
On 12 May, the standing committee on plants, animals, food and feed voted in favour of a draft Commission implementing regulation amending implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/405 as regards the restrictions of the prohibition on the use of certain antimicrobial medicinal products and repealing implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2598. The annex of the draft implementing the regulation includes an updated list of countries that have demonstrated compliance with EU restrictions on the use of antimicrobials in animals. Under EU rules, such substances cannot be used to promote growth or increase production in livestock and other food-producing animals. Brazil has been excluded from the list, meaning that it can no longer export to the EU commodities such as bovine, equine, poultry, eggs, aquaculture, honey and casings, with effect from 3 September 2026. This includes both food producing live animals and derived products. This is a clear example of the importance of maintaining the EU's sanitary and phytosanitary standards.
The Government will continue to advocate for the strict monitoring of imports in order to reflect the concerns of our farmers and consumers. The Deputies also referenced the EU-Mercosur trade deal. As Government, we have raised concerns in relation to the EU-Mercosur agreement over a number of years, particularly its potential impact on the beef sector, the strength of its climate and sustainability commitments and the food safety and environmental standards enforced by Mercosur countries. Our focus is on ensuring rigorous monitoring by the Commission of the agreement’s market impacts and the robust enforcement by the Commission, where necessary, of the provisions of the recently agreed safeguards regulation. The Government will also continue to engage closely with the Commission to ensure that it follows through on its additional commitments. This includes those in relation to food safety and environmental standards, as well as its stated intention to better align the production standards of imported products with EU production standards particularly with regard to pesticides and animal welfare. All of this work is crucial to fully addressing the concerns of our farmers and our consumers.

---

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/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19