Luke Ming Flanagan: EU lamb imports risk Irish farmers' incomes
MEP Luke Ming Flanagan questions the European Commission's trade logic and warns that proposed increases in lamb imports could undercut Irish producers. He argues the Commission has not provided like-for-like comparisons or credible impact assessments for farmers in the West of Ireland.
Main concerns and context
Luke Ming Flanagan challenges the Commission's assertions of strategic autonomy, asking what the cumulative effect of multiple trade deals will be. He cites past examples in dairy and sugar to show how small increases in supply can have outsized effects on prices and domestic production.
Impact on farmers
Flanagan highlights the risk to hill farmers in the West of Ireland, noting differences in land access, lambing cycles, production costs and quality standards. He asks whether an extra 25,000 tonnes of lamb - about 5 percent of EU production - has been properly modelled for price effects and market displacement.
Questions for policymakers
He presses for transparent, like-for-like comparisons between imports and EU production and for studies on price impacts. Drawing on the experience of Ireland's sugar industry, Flanagan frames the debate as a case study in the local effects of globalisation and calls for clearer answers from the European Commission.
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Thank you very much. When it comes to agreements like this, and you listen to the European Commission talk about strategic autonomy, at times to me that doesn't really add up. And we are told that, we're told time and time again with each agreement that it's only so many thousand tonnes, but as previous speakers have said, what is the cumulative effect when you add the whole thing together? And we're told on Mercosur it's only going to be a small amount of beef. We're not told that it's only going to be the best cuts. We're not given like for like figures with what's going to be imported and what Europe already produces. And in the dairy industry and the price of milk, if it was a case that a small increase in production wasn't going to lead to a massive reduction in price, which it did in the dairy industry, well, if we see 25,000 tonnes, extra tonnes of lamb coming into the European Union, that is 5% of what we produce, who's to say what impact that will have on prices? Has there been a study done? And from the point of view of challenges that hill farmers in the West of Ireland would face, from the point of view of access to land, the number of times, the amount of lambing seasons that there are, and how cheaply they can produce it, and the different quality standards, how will that be differentiated to the customer at the end of the day? And we were told in the past that we should get rid of our good profitable sugar industry. Ireland didn't benefit. And to me, it's a good case study in the effects of globalisation. You can still buy Irish sugar in the shops in Ireland, even though it's not produced in Ireland. It says Irish sugar on the bag. So my worry is that in the long term, how will we be able to compete with these systems? Like are they like for like? And I hear about, I get this idea if you're trading with someone, you're not going to be fighting with them. But I just heard the commission both stare that Australia aren't very happy about what was done. Okay, that might be good negotiating, but how does that fit with remaining friends with someone? If you feel like you didn't stay screwed, but you might as well. Wouldn't be the best way to make friends in my life if I was to screw me neighbours and go, I got a good deal.
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