2026-03-19

84. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the engagements he has had in relation to the EU-Mercosur trade agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19775/26]

Will the Minister outline the engagements he has had on the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, specifically with regard to the provisional implementation of that deal by the European Commission?

I thank Deputy O'Hara for raising the important matter of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement. The Government has been very clear about Ireland’s concerns in relation to the EU-Mercosur agreement and has expressed these consistently over a number of years, particularly in relation to the agreement's potential impact on the beef sector, the strength of its climate and sustainability commitments, and the production standards enforced by Mercosur countries. Since I took up the role of Minister in January of last year, I have met with like-minded EU counterparts to discuss these concerns. I have also raised them at every opportunity at the monthly AGRIFISH Council meetings in Brussels, at the extraordinary EU agriculture ministers’ meeting with Commissioners Hansen, Šefčovič and Várhelyi in January 2026, and in bilateral meetings with EU counterparts at the recent Global Forum for Food and Agriculture in Berlin, which was also in January. I note the decision by the European Commission to move ahead with the provisional application of the EU-Mercosur interim trade agreement. The Government’s focus is on ensuring rigorous monitoring by the Commission of the agreement’s market impacts and the robust enforcement, where necessary, by the Commission of the provisions of the recently agreed safeguards regulation. The Government will also engage closely with the Commission and with other like-minded EU member states to ensure follow-through on additional commitments in relation to food safety and environmental standards as well as the agreement's 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 will be crucial to addressing the concerns of our farmers and our consumers. Some of these additional commitments were given by Commissioner Várhelyi at that special meeting in January, which I attended and where I raised and pushed those points with the Commissioner. Those safeguards that have been put in place are absolutely and critically important. We could never stop this on our own but we have worked with like-minded countries to build a bloc to do so. At the same time, as part of a twin-track approach, we have always pushed for the maximum amount of safeguarding measures to reassure our consumers and farmers should the agreement come into operation.

This deal obviously represents a serious threat to the future of Irish agriculture and to our farmers, who operate to the highest standards in the world in terms of food production but will now face competition from Mercosur countries where the same food production and environmental standards are not in place. It is not a level playing field. The Parliament voted to refer this deal to the European Court of Justice because of the concerns about its legality. However, the Commission has set in motion a process to implement the deal anyway. This shows a blatant disregard for the democratic views of the European Parliament. It is a shameful decision by Ursula von der Leyen and the Commission. We now need to see decisive action from the Government to prevent the provisional application of this deal. The Minister mentioned safeguards but what specific actions is he taking to stop the provisional application of this deal? Is the Irish Government opposed to that provisional implementation?

I can go back over all of the times I have raised my opposition to the Mercosur deal in the AGRIFISH Council and in bilateral meetings. I have also been very frank and clear on that in my public utterances, on the floor of this House, in Brussels and in media interviews I have done on the issue. An element of the Deputy's question should be directed towards the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. This is a broader Government issue and trade deals are not decided by the Minister for agriculture, although I do speak up when they impact on agriculture and beyond. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, has responsibility for trade across all the different trade agreements, of which there are many, and which, by and large, Irish farming and Irish farmers benefit greatly from. We export 90% of the food and drink we produce, and those markets are really important. However, we will always have defensive interests as well as offensive interests when it comes to trade agreements and that is why we fought to raise our concerns regarding the Mercosur trade agreement, but also to say that, should it come to pass, those safeguards are so important. Getting the threshold for safeguard measures dropped from a 10% increase in import volume to a 5% increase, as well as the reduced 5% threshold for individual member states to trigger an intervention, are very significant changes that were fought for and measures like those are key to have in place.

There will be a huge impact on agriculture through this deal, so it is very relevant to the Minister. There is a concern out there because Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil sat on the fence for years when it came to this deal. It was not until the day before the vote that they came out and said they were going to outright oppose the deal. It is now being provisionally applied even though the European Parliament has voted to refer it to the European Court of Justice as it is not satisfied with the legality of the agreement. The Government cannot be passive in the face of this. It needs to take a clear position on this and work with other member states to halt the provisional application of this deal. It is detrimental to Irish farming. Irish farmers have been clear about that and their views on it. As Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon's job is to represent those farmers, their views and their best interests. What specific actions is the Minister going to take? I understand what he is saying about safeguards and so on, and all of that is important, but what specific actions is he taking to oppose and stop the provisional implementation of this deal?

Before I talk about anything I am doing next, the first thing I have to do is to counter what the Deputy just said on the floor of this House. It is complete false. I have been clear on this issue. At a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on 27 January 2025, when I was four days into the job, I spoke about how I was opposed to the Mercosur trade deal and articulated that perspective very clearly. There were meetings on 24 February 2025 and 24 March 2025. On 23 June 2025, there was a meeting in Luxembourg. There were also meetings on 22 and 23 September 2025 and 17 November 2025 and the extraordinary meeting on 7 January this year as well. That is in addition to the bilateral meetings I had on a number of occasions with my counterpart, Annie Genevard, the French minister for agriculture. I met Francesco Lollobrigida, the Italian minister for agriculture, on a number of occasions to discuss this issue. I also met with ministers of agriculture from Poland, Austria, Cyprus, Latvia, Slovakia, Austria and many other countries that had, for a variety of reasons, expressed concerns. We engaged with them and worked all the way through. We worked to the very last point to get the maximum amount of leverage to see if we could build that bloc. We also pushed on the safeguards. No country would make a final decision that far out if it wanted to keep the maximum pressure on for the safeguards in the event that we failed to have a blocking minority. We crystalised our decisions on the last day and that was absolutely the right strategic approach because we got the 10% down to 5%; we got the changes on the safeguards should we fail to meet the blocking minority. We always knew that we could not do this on our own. Population-wise and member state-wise, we knew that would not be able to make that contribution. It was a very strategic approach.

What was Sinn Féin doing when the Minister was doing all of that?

It is not your speaking time.

It did nothing.

It was the day before the vote.

Deputy Healy-Rae supported our motion in 2019.