The legal challenge initiated by Sinn Féin MEPs Lynn Boylan and Kathleen Funchion, and The Left group which includes Luke Ming Flanagan, to refer the Mercosur trade deal to the European Court of Justice was narrowly but thankfully won in the European Parliament yesterday. I commend them, and Deputy Kenny here, on their months and years of hard work. I stand here as a rural TD where farming matters, where food security matters and where environmental protection matters. The thing about rural people is that they say what they mean and they mean what they say. This is in complete contrast to the carry-on and the codology of the Government stance on Mercosur, which reached a pinnacle of extraordinary spectacle yesterday when half of Government MEPs voted against the referral to the ECJ test and half voted for it. The referral seeks to ascertain whether the agreement is in breach of EU law. What is it, Tánaiste? Is his party and the Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry Independents for or against the Mercosur deal? It has now been suggested by Ursula von der Leyen that the provisional enactment of the deal should be put through. Is the Tánaiste going to stop that? How can Government stop it if it does not know what side it is on?

I know what side the Government is on. The Deputy is engaging in what our counterpart across the Atlantic Ocean would call "fake news." This Government opposed the Mercosur agreement.

They voted.

No, Deputy. You had your say. Allow me to speak too. In a democracy, allow me to speak too.

Deputy Conway-Walsh, please.

This is not a kangaroo court. You speak and I speak. Thank you. You made an assertion and I am going to answer it very clearly. The Government voted against the Mercosur agreement. There was no vote yesterday in the European Parliament on the Mercosur agreement. Do you know what there should have been? There should have been a "Yes" or "No" vote.

What people have done by saying to the courts, "Will you have a look at it?", is injected uncertainty for up to two years for Irish farmers and European farmers, at a time of enough uncertainty.

We blocked it.

Do you know what vote I would have liked to take place yesterday? A "Yes" or "No" vote.

We blocked it, which the Government failed to do.

I have never needed, as a parliamentarian, the courts to tell me what way to vote.

We blocked it, which the Government failed to do.

I wanted a situation where MEPs of all sides had a chance to vote "Yes" or "No", not run off to the courts for the next two years.

We blocked it.

Do not misrepresent our position. We know exactly where we stand. This Government has the backs of farmers but it does not believe in performative politics.