The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association protested against the proposed EU-Mercosur free trade deal on Thursday outside the gates of Leinster House as its leader made clear: “We don’t want compensation; we want a fair price.”

ICSA president Seán McNamara warned that the momentum the trade agreement’s backers have built over recent months risks killing off any optimism 2025 has brought back to beef farming.

“Farming was going well up to now this year, there was a bit of an incentive there for young people to come back into farming,” McNamara told the Irish Farmers Journal at the protest.

“Now, it’s going totally the opposite. What farmer would want to see his son or daughter come in if we see income fall so much because of CAP, Mercosur and everything else.”

The ICSA’s leaders met briefly with Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to air their concerns around the deal directly to Government.

Minister fails to settle fears

However, McNamara claimed that this meeting did little to address the mounting fears ICSA members have with the possibility of the deal being approved, which would allow low-tariff South American beef onto the EU’s market.

“I wasn’t very happy with what he said. The words he said was that they would have to get three different European countries along with themselves to stop it,” the ICSA president reported, as France – previously among the largest opponents of the deal – appears to now be on board with the European Commission's hope to see the deal ratified.

McNamara stated that there is urgency in Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's push to get the deal across the line that had not been witnessed in previous years' developments on the agreement.

“Ursula von der Leyen is trying to get it across the line. Before, she was doing her very best, but [was stuck] in limbo a lot the time,” he continued.

“Now, she is looking to get it across the line to suit pharmaceuticals, to suit German companies.”

United opposition

The protest was joined by other groups, with Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association vice-president John Joe Fitzgerald and Irish Farmers' Association deputy leader Alice Doyle among those showing support.

“We don’t trust the safeguards,” Doyle said when citing a 2024 report from the Commission’s food safety wing that found Brazilian beef’s hormone-free guarantees could not be proven.

The INHFA’s Fitzgerald warned that Mercosur would prove a “bad deal for small farmers in the west of Ireland” and for “beef farmers in general”.

“We seen it years ago with the sugar beet. We lost a great industry in this country, we are going down the same route with our suckler beef,” he added.

Government pledge

The Programme for Government commits to oppose Mercosur in the form it was in when the Government was formed.

One of McNamara’s demands at the gates of Leinster House was for clarity on what altered form of a deal would be deemed palatable enough for Government to back it.

“We haven’t learned about the alternative form and that’s what I want to know – what is this alternative form?”

Farmers’ concerns

Wicklow farmer Tom Stephenson stated that he had attended the protest to push Government to reject the deal, fearing that “if the deal starts to come in, the last of the great suckler herds will be gone”.

Beef farmer Eoin Ryan, who travelled from south Co Kerry to attend, said he had concerns about hormones banned for decades in the EU entering markets here in South American beef before the ink dries on the deal.

“You would have to question the safety of what is coming in,” Ryan said.

"The income that we are currently getting from beef prices is at an all-time record high. It will be very hard to go back to taking a lower price for a premium-grade product if we are flooded with South American beef.”