Yesterday the European Parliament voted to pause the Mercosur deal. No sooner had that vote taken place than the European Commission and many senior members and politicians, including the German Chancellor, effectively stated that they wanted to proceed provisionally with the implementation of Mercosur. The position of Ursula von der Leyen and the Commission is very clear in relation to this but our position has been ambivalent at best. During the last round at the European Council, you really came in at the eleventh hour in terms of your opposition. The provisional implementation will go before the European Council and will need a qualified majority vote. Will the Government engage across Europe with the wavering nations in particular and ensure that the voices of the European Parliament and the people are heard and that this Mercosur deal will go through the courts and a court decision will be reached before the provisional implementation of this deal?

I have consistently said on the public record that the people's democratically elected representatives across the European Union should never be taken for granted in relation to Mercosur. I have consistently said that. There has been a misrepresentation by some, although not by Deputy Lawless, that it was all about the European Council. Yes, the Council had a vote and Ireland voted "No" but there is a co-decisionmaking power and the European Parliament also has a vote. What I would have much preferred to happen yesterday, to give certainty to Irish farmers, was that the European Parliament had direct vote in relation to its consent to the trade agreement. I believe if that had happened, a very significant majority of Government MEPs would have opposed the deal. Instead, we have a situation where it now goes off for a court review that could take two years. That leaves this grey area now where the European Commission may try to provisionally implement the agreement. Ireland's position and that of the Government of Ireland is clear in opposing the Mercosur agreement in its current form. There was no question of an eleventh hour. We worked, as did France and President Macron, up to the last minute to see what we could get in terms of a good deal for farmers. We never gave up. We kept working but when we did not get a deal that was good enough, we voted against it. We kept our word and I am proud of how we handled that. We will continue, at Government level, to be consistent in relation to it.