The Mercosur trade agreement which was passed by a vote of EU member states’ representatives last week, ‘is bad for health and bad for Irish farming’, Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú told a demonstration in Dundalk on Saturday.
Over 100 farmers on tractors converged on Market Square on Saturday morning for a rally in support of a larger event in Athlone, which attracted thousands of protesters.
The Dundalk TD told the Dundalk protesters that Irish people were ‘way beyond disappointed’ with the EU representatives’ vote on Friday and accused the government of doing ‘far too little, far too late’.
Deputy Ó Murchú urged farmers to ‘keep the government’s feet to the flames’ and said it was ‘not good enough’ that nearly 100,000 tonnes of South American beef could come into Europe under the Mercosur deal.
Deputy Ó Murchú joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.