Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-15
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

That is my point. These examples have been given as if they are directly related to the ratification of CETA or the passage of this legislation. The cases the Deputies mentioned have not been decided under the investor court system. They have been decided under the old, long-standing system of investor state dispute settlement, ISDS. I have already outlined the difficulties with that. We felt there was a lack of consistency and predictability, a lack of transparency and the issue of the right to regulate, which I have spoken about at length already, was not there. In the Vermillion case Deputy Gibney spoke about, none of the provisions I am talking about that apply under CETA were there and it was not under an investor court system but under the ISDS system. It was not under CETA. There was no provision allowing for the right to regulate under that particular treaty that the Vermillion case was concerned with in France. Because of those concerns were raised, we have collectively, as a European Union of member states and Canada, decided to change the way we do things, which is to ensure we have a right to regulate and ensure we have an investor court system that works and recognises the role of the sate in regulating and doing social good, but also gives predictability, certainty and transparency to business in order that we can develop important trade ties. I know that many people in the development sector are concerned about trade agreements in general but this is between Canada and the European Union. It is a totally different circumstance.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-15