The Dáil held a five-hour long debate on agriculture, with the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) dominating statements by TDs.

Following a question from Green Party leader Eamon Ryan TD to Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, it was agreed that a Dáil debate on the proposed trade agreement will take place in the coming weeks.

As a result, the minister didn’t discuss the trade deal on Wednesday, but the topic was discussed repeatedly on the Dáil floor, with several TDs voicing their concern over the potential impact on Irish agriculture.

Dublin TD Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit admitted he was “obviously not as familiar with the on-the-ground challenges that face the agriculture sector”, but said that “huge numbers of farmers are struggling and facing very significant threats coming down the tracks, particularly in the form of TTIP”.

“The recent TTIP leaks have clearly exposed the enormous threat that TTIP poses for many sectors but very particular for farmers and the agri food sector,” he said, adding that “the small and medium enterprise of farming and food produce would be absolutely destroyed” under the proposed deal.

EU regulatory standards

Longford-Westmeath Labour TD Willie Penrose described the Mercosur proposal, which would allow for 78,000t of South American beef into Europe, as representing “the death knell of the beef industry”.

He called for the focus now to be on this tariff-rate quota beef proposal and called the for EU to analyse the cumulative impact of tariff-rate quotas concessions in Mercosur and TTIP talks before any deals are concluded.

Also speaking on TTIP, Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy said the negotiating documents leaked last week “demonstrated the conscious attempt by the US side to undermine EU regulatory standards”.

“The Government now has a real problem on the issue of TTIP because the argument for the world’s biggest free trade agreement, for a race to the bottom in terms of environment and consumer standards in this country, has been built on two planks – secrecy and lack of backed-up facts.”

Numerous members of the Dáil from every party and independents expressed their concern at the trade partnership, with many mentioning the ICSA protest today and the importance of highlighting the issue to the public.

Catherine Murphy of the Social Democrats said it could cause a serious problem in terms of reducing quality, claiming the “government seems to have become a cheerleader for TTIP”.

Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris said the consequences of TTIP had to be made known. He said it was wrong that other committees, apart from the agriculture committee, had not discussed the deal as it “affects everybody”.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael’s Andrew Doyle said a far greater threat was Mercosur: “This is really the one we need to concentrate on and be very sceptical about any benefits to the Irish agricultural sector if Mercosur were to become a reality.”

Minister Coveney was absent for part of the debate, citing “other issues” which he is very involved in.

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