Neil McDonnell

We've seen substandard products produced in Ireland as well.

That does not constitute a legitimate reason to hold up the largest trade deal forming the largest trade block in the history of the planet.

You know, the fact that someone put some horse meat into a packet down the country here in Ireland does not mean that our entire beef industry is blameworthy for what happened among a tiny minority.

And those standards will not be permissible to enter into the EU markets.

That's very clear in the Mercosur deal.

So let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

We also have agri-food producers in cheese, in baby formula.

We have whisky producers.

We have so many other agri-food producers here who stand to benefit from this deal.

Let's not pretend that, you know, just because there might be a time

minimal impact on one sector that we should throw out the greatest trade deal that the EU has ever done and let's also not forget that our beef farmers actually benefited from increased exports into Canada despite the noises that were made eight years ago about it being the worst thing that ever happened to the beef sector.