The protection of farmers income is written into the programme for Government. The Tánaiste is the very man who back in 2013 advised dairy farmers to increase production. As he knows, at most 20% of calves are kept for replacement. The rest of the dairy bred calves go into beef production. At that time, the Tánaiste told people to increase production and now the Government is advising beef farmers to reduce production and plant forestry. At the same time, the Government will allow Brazilians to import beef into the European Union. How can the Government reconcile this? How can it explain to farmers that four or five years ago it told them to increase production and now it is telling them to decrease production? It is not as simple as turning on or off a tap.

We have had statements on this.

These people have invested hundreds, thousands and millions of euro in their farms.

We will have to review all of this in the next session.

Yes but I ask the Tánaiste to explain this because this is what the Government is doing.

The relevant Ministers were here yesterday.

It is as simple as this. Thousands of farmers came from throughout the country yesterday to ask the Government to stand with them and support them. I ask the Tánaiste whether he will leave our beef farmers fade away and be driven out of existence. We need the Government to unite and say "No" to this trade agreement. It is harmful to our beef industry and will finish it. We are looking to the Tánaiste and the Government to come out with a clear statement saying "No" to it on behalf of the beef farmers.

We will vote on this in a while. We had a debate and we will vote on it.

I am not quite sure what the first questioner is looking for the Government to do. He seems to be suggesting we should reimpose milk quotas-----

No such thing. The Government is trying to con the farmers.

-----which would be absolute nonsense. The Government has been, and will continue to be, supportive of farmers and agriculture. There has been much opportunity for debate on the potential Mercosur deal in the past two days. We have a more immediate focus with regard to protecting the beef industry in particular through the Brexit process which, of course, is a big responsibility for me and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I can tell the Deputies that agriculture and farming are big priorities for the weeks and months ahead.