European Council
Dail Éireann — 2024-03-21
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I have noticed a trend in that the Deputy tends to try to create wedge issues or sow confusion and doubt. Defence and security remain national competences and will continue to require unanimity in EU decision-making. That is the bottom line. Trade, including the conduct of trade agreements, is an EU competence. That has been the case for a considerable time and has been advantageous to Ireland overall. The Deputy is against CETA between Europe and Canada and he has a different view on trade, in that he seems to be against the idea of free trade agreements between Europe and other countries. I am just back from Canada, where our exports in goods alone have increased from €1 billion to €4 billion as a result of CETA and our services exports have increased to €2 billion.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-03-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-03-21