This morning, members of the Irish Farmers Association have gathered at the European Commission's office in Dublin to protest against the Commission's offer of a 70,000 tonne beef quota to Argentina, Brazil and other Mercosur countries, as reported recently. All the main farming organisations across this island have quite rightly opposed this move. Farming organisations agree that there must be a commitment to remove beef and poultry from the agreement or risk destroying one of our biggest and most internationally reputable industries. If the reports of the 70,000 tonne quota are true, then our beef sector and livelihoods of farmers are being sacrificed for a deal with South America. This would create huge difficulties at any time but given the unfolding risk of Brexit, particularly for rural Ireland and its agrifood industry, these difficulties are magnified.

Irish farmers have stood up in the past against Brazilian beef imports. They did so for economic reasons but also to safeguard our high standards in animal welfare and health. How can this quantity of beef be accepted from states which do not observe the most basic standards?

The Taoiseach will be aware - he was at the ploughing championships - that farm income is reaching disastrously low levels, especially for small farmers but instead of coming up with measures to tackle this problem to take farmers out of the risk of poverty, the Commission is pushing ahead with its cheap food policy as well as other free trade agreements, such as the New Zealand free trade agreement and the Canada-EU trade agreement.

In a recent video message, the Taoiseach stated that he was very much in favour of the Mercosur deal because free trade makes everyone better off by creating jobs and revenues, although he has acknowledged that there is a particular concern for our Irish beef sector. This seems to be a completely contradictory statement. The Taoiseach then goes on claim that he wants to make sure that we insist on the highest standards of animal welfare and also health and safety, and also make sure that our beef farmers are competing on a level playing field. Riddle me this. What does that mean? Will the Taoiseach tell us exactly what that means because he does not state that he will block the deal?

The Taoiseach has been a cheerleader, like his Fianna Fáil partners, for free trade deals. For example, the Canada-EU trade agreement, which the Taoiseach defended yesterday, will allow for up to 65,000 tonnes of beef to be imported into the EU tariff free along with 65,000 tonnes of pork. The Mercosur states already supply up to 75% of third country beef imports to the EU market and giving them greater access would be a huge mistake. I am asking the Taoiseach to intervene and be clear, to make it plain to the Commission that it should not proceed with this trade deal.

First, I am glad that Deputy Adams is watching my video messages. They seem to be having some traction, at least in terms of getting accurate messages across, not only to the public but also to opponents. I have intervened already. I met President Juncker in Tallinn specifically to talk about Mercosur. I met the IFA about it. Deputy Adams can be sure that many of those at the ploughing championships and the Iverk agriculture show in Kilkenny raised it with me.

I left President Juncker in no doubt of Ireland's position with regard to our beef sector. I reminded him of his state of the Union speech in which he stated that we do not only export products and services, we also export our standards and values. I said that I expected that to be reflected in any free trade deal, that our standards of animal welfare, of animal health and of food safety would be reflected and written into any trade deal. I also expressed my opposition to an offer of the scale that Deputy Adams mentioned. That is the position of the Government.

We need to bear in mind, however, that free trade deals are not only about one sector or one part of one sector. They are about a whole picture. We have to judge what is best for the Irish economy in the round, what is best for Irish jobs in the round and what is best for Irish people's incomes in the round. That is how we approach free trade agreements. We look at them in the round. What I want is a Mercosur agreement, a trade agreement between the EU and Latin America, that would be of benefit to Ireland. I cannot see myself or the Government, or the Dáil - it would require the ratification of the Dáil - approving a free trade agreement that did not do that.

Is it another rubber stamp job like CETA?

Deputy Adams can be assured that any trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur will have to benefit Ireland if it is going to pass the Government and this Parliament.

Once again I detect an ambiguity in Sinn Féin's position towards the European Union. At present, Sinn Féin is campaigning against Brexit, it wants to keep Northern Ireland in the European Union and yet along the way it voted against every European referendum and opposed every free trade agreement. Essentially, the European Union is a free trade bloc. It is at the core of what the European Union does.

We could shape it, though. The Taoiseach does not have to descend down to them.

We have free trade among ourselves. We have a customs union. We have a Single Market. We negotiate trade deals with other parts of the world-----

We do not discuss them in here.

-----and we do so from a position of strength because we are the largest economy in the world with 500 million people and that allows us to negotiate beneficial deals with places, such as Canada, Japan and, at present, Mercosur.

Sinn Féin really needs to decide whether or not it is a eurosceptic party because its position-----

We can engage with Europe without accepting everything.

-----is just an impossible contradiction. The party says that it does not want Northern Ireland to leave the European Union and that it is against Brexit and yet it consistently opposes what is fundamentally at the heart of the European Union, which is economic integration, free trade agreements with other parts of the world, a Single Market and customs union.

I assure the Taoiseach that I am an avid watcher of his videos. I think he could relax a wee bit in terms of his delivery but so far, so good. He is doing not so badly.

I would commend Twitter to him as well as a means of communication with the masses.

There is no ambiguity in Sinn Féin's attitude to the European Union. We are quite rightly critical of a two-tier Europe. I asked the Taoiseach to intervene in very plain words and very direct language and he said - he can correct me if I am wrong - that he is against an offer of this scale. That is not good enough. Everybody here knows that the agrifood industry is one of Ireland's big success stories. We also know that the rural way of life is under continuous threat from urbanisation and bad Government policy. We all agree that Brexit presents a huge difficulty so to even contemplate proceeding at this time, before the conclusion of the Brexit negotiations is foolhardy. The Taoiseach cannot take this deal in isolation. The Taoiseach spoke about ambiguity but his own track record in terms of the Canada and EU trade agreement and the New Zealand free trade agreement is a matter of grave concern. I am asking the Taoiseach to defend our agrifood industry. I said that there is an urgent need for him to intervene, not to just use soft words or ambiguous statements. He needs to say "No" to the European Commission and "Yes" to Irish farmers, farming families and to our agrifood producers.

Deputy Adams will be delighted to know that I am also an avid follower of his tweets.

There is a coalition on the way.

There is one thing-----

This is a love-in.

-----that I absolutely agree with Deputy Adams about and that is the success of our agrifood industry. Why is our agrifood industry successful? It is not because we produce for our own market but because we export. It is trade, and free trade, that makes agrifood successful in Ireland. It is the fact that we trade so much with the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe and increasingly, with China. On balance, trade is good for Irish agriculture. If we did not have free trade, we would only produce for our own market and huge numbers of farms would go out of business and become non-viable. That is why our starting position should be an openness to free trade because free trade and exports are what has made Irish agrifood so successful. That is why we should not come from a starting position of fear and protectionism; we should be open to free trade agreements.

This is an agreement that does not even exist yet. It is something that is under negotiation. The approach that Sinn Féin seems to be advocating, which is so often its approach, is to be against it before it even knows what it is. That is not a grown-up approach to government.

We know what it is.

We know what we have discussed in here.