Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Duncan Smith (LAB), Dublin Fingal East

Every vote in support of this Bill will bring ultimately bring potential harm on the State and it does not have to be that way. We do not need an independent investment court or arbitration system. I ask the Minister to look again and withdraw this, to go about it a different way and to trust our court system. We can have good and growing trade with Canada. We can be good partners and improve things. We do not need to hand over to the big multinationals or big mining companies any more influence than they already have. It will ultimately cost this country hundreds of millions of euro down through the years. I know the Minister of State will have seen the Future Forty document that was released last month. Whatever about the next one to ten years, in the next 40 years there will be some serious challenges for this country and State and we do not need to have our hands tied behind our backs. We, in the Labour Party, solemnly believe that the investor court system as set out in CETA would mean us having at least one hand tied behind our back.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09