I wish to speak about the Mercosur deal which, as the House will be aware, was signed last Saturday. I commend our Government on making the right decision two weeks ago when Ireland voted no on the deal. It is a bad deal for our farmers as we are very much aware but what is more important, and has not been raised enough, is the bad deal it is for health. We saw the investigation prior to Christmas by the Irish Farmers' Journal and the Irish Farmers Association that involved people going undercover in Brazil to look at access to the antimicrobials, antibiotics and growth hormones many Brazilian animals are being fed. The latter goes against the EU's One Health strategy and its policy on microbial resistance and is going to put resistance to microbes in this country in danger going forward. These are very dangerous products to be putting into our system and the food chain.

Thousands of farmers are protesting in Strasbourg against the deal. While it has been signed, the deal has yet to be delivered. While we will not have the vote in the European Parliament for a number of months - I encourage all MEPs to vote against the deal - there will be a vote in Strasbourg tomorrow on whether to refer the deal to the Court of Justice of the European Union to see if it is compliant with European policy. Again, I encourage all our MEPs to vote against this tomorrow. It is a bad deal for farmers and for health. There are over 206,000 tonnes of Mercosur beef coming into the EU yearly already, and consumer awareness in this regard is not where it should be. I call on the Ministers for Health and agriculture to address this matter. I want the Minister for Health to address the implications the introduction of these beef products will have for our health system and for antimicrobial resistance. I want the Minister for agriculture to look at how we raise consumer awareness of this issue.