Mercosur beef quota
Deputy Charlie McConalogue warned that a proposed Mercosur beef quota would damage Irish agriculture and urged the Taoiseach to intervene urgently. The Taoiseach said he had raised the issue with President Juncker and that Ireland would not support such volumes unless standards and limits were acceptable.
The Taoiseach will be aware of speculation regarding the European Commission's plan to offer a 70,000 tonne tariff rate quota for beef as part of the Mercosur offer to South American countries. That is extremely concerning and would be detrimental to our agriculture and the sector if it was followed through on.
What engagement has the Taoiseach had with the European Commission with regard to this? Given its importance and how crucial it is the offer not be proceeded with, will the Taoiseach, as a matter of absolute urgency, engage with the European Commission to ensure the offer is not made?
Comment on this
I met President Juncker in Tallinn a couple of days ago and it was one of the issues we discussed. I expressed the view of the Government, which is that we do not just export our products; we export our standards, and we would expect that the standards should be the same in the Mercosur countries as they are in Europe when it comes to animal health, animal welfare, traceability, safety and other matters. I also expressed our view that the volumes should be limited and any such offer on that scale would not be supported by Ireland.