Mayo TD pressures Tánaiste to explain Government’s MEP votes on Mercosur

Speaking in the Dáil today Mayo Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh pressed the Tánaiste to explain the votes of four government MEPs yesterday that rejected a motion initiated by the Left group to bring a legal challenge against Mercosur to the European Courts of Justice.

Teachta Conway-Walsh said:

“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 agreement to the European Court of Justice was thankfully narrowly won yesterday in the European Parliament.

I must commend them all, along with Teachta Martin Kenny, for all their months and years of hard work to get this result yesterday.

As a rural TD I represent the interests of farmers. Their concerns surrounding the viability of their family farms, food security, public health and environmental protection – if this deal is ever passed – must be listened too.

Rural people say what they mean and mean what they say – which is in sharp contrast to this government and its representatives when it comes to Mercosur.”

Deputy Conway-Walsh added:

“People aren’t stupid. The codology from this government reached an extraordinary spectacle yesterday - when half of the government’s 8 MEPs voted against the motion referring to the deal to the ECJ, and to test whether the agreement is in beach of EU law.

“Even more concerning are the reports following the vote that suggested Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen is considering provisional enactment of the deal regardless.

“The Irish people deserve to know Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Lowery Independents position on this disastrous deal for Irish farmers.

"Are they for or against Mercosur? And if it is the latter, why are their MEPs not supporting every possible measure to get this deal blocked and to stop democracy being undermined?

“People in rural Ireland and across the State deserve to know.”