That might also have something to do with the meat they export to the UK? Especially when there is talk of importing meat from Australia and New Zealand.
Mr Martin may have more to lose than other member states. Good luck to him because the commission has already shown that they make the decisions.
I'm sure Martin has Ireland's interests in mind, and so he should. But he seems level headed, unlike some of the hot heads in the EU. He's gonna come against France and Germany of course. Let's face it, together they are the EU when it comes to decision making. It's interesting though, that since the Brexit free trade agreement, Ireland currently seems to find itself more closely aligned to the UK than to its fellow EU member states on trade.