Taoiseach Confirms Irish No Vote For Mercosur

Thursday, 8 January 2026 09:26

The Fianna Fail leader confirmed the news from China today.

Ireland won't be voting for the Mercosur deal.

The EU is due to vote on the arrangement on Friday, which would increase trade opportunities between Europe and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The Taoiseach says huge progress has been made in relation to the deal, but says he doesn't have confidence that Irish farmers won't be under pressure if the deal goes through.

Speaking in China, Micheál Martin told reporters that Ireland will vote no:

MACRA is "deeply concerned" about the potential consequences of the proposed trade agreement.

The organisation for young farmers will be attending a demonstration in Athlone on Saturday where thousands of farmers are expected to protest against the deal.

President of the group Josephine O'Neill says this deal will have a big effect on young Irish farmers:

IFA President Ballinakill's Francie Gorman says the confirmation this morning that the Irish Government will vote no to the Mercosur deal is the right decision.

“There’s a clear commitment in the Programme for Government that our Government would oppose the deal. The so-called safeguards put forward by the EU Commission do not give any assurances that Brazilian beef will meet EU standards,”

Mr Gorman says the IFA’s campaign opposing Mercosur will continue after tomorrow’s meeting of the EU Ambassadors.

The President of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, says that the Government’s decision that Ireland would vote against the Mercosur Agreement was the right decision on both economic and environmental grounds:

“The Government left it very late, but has come down on the right side of what is a head-to-head between fundamental principles of fairness and consistency and the kind of slippery expediency that seems to be the dominant approach in far too many situations now.

ICMSA and Irish farmers in general have never been against fair trade; the point is that – as regards food and particularly beef – the agreement with the Mercosur was not and could not be fair."

While ICSA president Westmeath's Sean McNamara says "it's the right decision, but it should have been made clear long before today. The dangers of this deal have been obvious for years. It is completely unacceptable to demand world-leading standards from Irish farmers while importing food produced to weaker rules. That is not fair trade, it’s pure hypocrisy”.