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On Tuesday, European countries voted in favour of renewing the licence of the controversial weedkiller for a five-year term.
This ends nearly two years of controversy which saw mass protests against the herbicide while farmers had been strongly advocating for the licence to be renewed.
Science must lead us and our decisions
The vote came just two weeks before the licence for glyphosate was to expire.
McGuinness, who was speaking at an IFA event in Louth last Thursday, said political discussions in Germany played a key role in the decision to renew.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel had been in coalition talks with the Green Party. The Greens are, naturally, opposed to glyphosate.
“You can thank the Germans for glyphosate still being on the shelves,” McGuinness said.
She said German agriculture minister Christian Schmidt “wanted to reauthorise glyphosate but Angela Merkel could not support that when they were negotiating with the Greens … once the coalition talks broke down, then Germany could vote in favour of glyphosate. It was that close.”
However, the vice-president of the European Parliament issued a word of caution on the future of glyphosate.
“It has been renewed for five years but it may not go beyond that,” she warned.
McGuinness, not referencing the glyphosate decision directly, added there is an onus on politicians to “act responsibly” and that “science must lead us and our decisions”.
“Policymakers can’t stand over a product that is causing harm … that would be a definite problem.”
Read more on the glyphosate issue
Glyphosate: 'must we shoot ourselves in the foot to prove the gun is loaded?'
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