Cattle farmers are staging a protest at the European Union Commission offices in Dublin on Monday over a proposed South American trade deal.

They claim Irish and European farmers are being sacrificed at a time when the EU is already on the brink of losing the UK market over Brexit.

IFA President Joe Healy will lead officers and members of the IFA Livestock Committee in a protest over what they claim are "double standards" of the commission in their "reckless pursuit" of a trade deal with the South American group of Mercosur countries.

The Mercosur bloc is made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

"At a time when the EU is on the brink of losing the UK market with Brexit, it is reckless of the Commission to agree to a deal which would see tens of thousands of tons of substandard beef from Brazil and other South American countries come onto the European market", the IFA says.

Mr Healy says: "It is totally unacceptable that the Commission is prepared to sacrifice Irish and European farmers, but they are also giving the green light to the further destruction of rainforests.

"Farmers are sick of the double speak from the EU Commission which lectures us on climate change, but is prepared do a deal with a country with a climate destruction agenda".

"The Commission's Food and Veterinary Office has volumes of reports which expose in stark terms the failure of the Brazilian authorities, in particular, to meet EU standards on animal welfare, traceability, food safety and the environment", he claimed.

"We hear a lot about the size of the Irish cattle herd, which is under seven million. Yet Brazil have 230 million cattle, with a further 53 million in Argentina.

"The EU Commission will have no credibility if they proceed with this deal".

"Irish farmers are rightly asking how the EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan can stand idly by and allow EU negotiators to show such a blatant disregard for EU standards".

In a separate communication to the commission, some 340 NGOs from across Europe have said the deal should be abandoned.

The organisations are demanding that the European Union immediately halt free trade agreement negotiations on the grounds of deteriorating human rights and environmental conditions in Brazil.

The open letter is addressed to presidents of the EU institutions.