The programme for Government states that the development of the agriculture and food sector is a fundamental priority for the future direction of the country and that the priority must be to reward farmers for productivity and producing quality food, which brings me to the Mercosur deal. Many comments have been attributed to the Taoiseach over recent days. I have one direct question for him. Is he going to stand behind rural farming families in regard to this deal?

This is catastrophic. It is not a friendly deal or environmentally friendly. It will clear out small farming families. The Government must face down this deal.

The Taoiseach has given a commitment on behalf of the Government to produce an economic evaluation of the Mercosur deal. Will he follow the example of French President Macron to include an assessment of the environmental impact of this trade deal? Such an evaluation would expose the fact that the carbon footprint of Irish suckler beef is 35 times less than that of beef produced in the Amazon basin in Brazil. This is a bad deal for rural Ireland and for global climate.

The answer to both the Deputies' questions is "Yes" on both accounts. We currently have a political agreement between the EU and Mercosur. It will be about two years before we have a legal text. We will have an opportunity to vote on it but I certainly will not hesitate to vote against any trade agreement that I believe is not in Ireland's economic interest and will form alliances to block it if possible. Whatever happens, we will do everything we can to ensure that the interests of Irish beef farmers are protected. That means making sure that South American beef producers have to meet the same food safety and traceability standards that our farmers do, ensuring that South American countries have to honour their commitments to climate change under the Paris Agreement and compensating farmers for the loss of a market, perhaps by opening up other market opportunities in places such as Japan, Mexico and China. We will do a full economic and environmental assessment on the consequences of the Mercosur deal, recognising the fact that this is a market of 250 million people and while there may be losses for some sectors, there could be significant benefits for others. We need to look at that in the round.