Francie Gorman

There's 750 million people in the two blocks.

And to try and compare one with the other is unfair.

The checks and balances that apply in Canada are a lot greater than they would in South America.

Hormone beef is not part of the trade deal with CETA.

So I think you go back to the standards and...

It's unquestionable, and we've shown it when we were out there 20 years ago and as late as last October, that these standards do not apply.

And all we are looking for, David, is a little bit of fairness that we can compete with whoever we have to go to market on a level playing field.

And to bring up the issue of the horse meat issue here a number of years ago, the one thing that showed is that the checks and balances here that we have in Ireland, it's the same, our trade deals with Canada,

if we have any level of a bsc case it's found we know about it we notify the authorities that does not happen with south american beef coming in here and they cannot verify it and it's grossly unfair to do that uh to to treat irish and european beef farmers like that and the european union need to go back and take a real look at this and ultimately it's going to be ratified by at least the european parliament down the road and we're going to hold our government to account and the commitment that they gave in the program for government

to oppose this, and there's a lot to play out here still.

Good morning, Clare.

Not offended, but surprised.

And I think the comments were ill-judged.

They're divisive.

And you said that they caused greater unease in Fine Gael.

I can tell you they've caused a lot more unease in rural Ireland and among our members who were really, really annoyed at those comments.

I suppose he was Taoiseach of our country and I would have worked with him for four or five months when I became president of IFA and always felt that he was collegiate in how he went about doing his business and that he had a real regard for people in Northern Ireland.

But obviously his comments yesterday showed that maybe that wasn't the case and I think the concern that we have as farmers is that

Is that a narrative that when people are at their dinner parties in South Dublin and they're talking around the table, that it's a feeling that rural Ireland don't contribute?

And I mean, if you go back to when we had the financial crash in 2008, the two industries that kept the country on its knees, or on its feet, were agriculture and tourism.