Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-06 ============================================================ Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel The Arbitration (Amendment) Bill is an attempt to create a constitutional fix so that the Government can ratify CETA. I am genuinely perplexed that the Government is trying to push a deal that would leave Ireland under the thumb of international corporations and with the threat of legal action hanging our heads. If the CETA deal is ratified, we will be within a corporate court system which will mean big companies could sue Ireland for lack of profits. This looming threat of legal action hanging over us would be unhealthy for our democracy. It is absolute madness that the Government would hand away the freedom to legislate for the public good. At first glance, CETA seems to be terminable by notice, but while Ireland would be a party to this treaty, it would not be the party that could terminate. That would only be Canada or the EU as a whole. We can choose not to ratify CETA but once we ratify it, there is no backing out and that is very concerning. The only way for us to exit this treaty would be to leave the European Union. At a time of global instability, a cost-of-living crisis and billions in climate fines looming, should we really be taking further legal and financial risk? The real problem here is the chilling effect this will have on our Government whenever a foreign company threatens to bring a case to the CETA tribunal for when we propose a policy it does not like. If we try to limit the profitability of companies or even do so inadvertently through regulating the sale of certain products or fuels or even in terms of rent control pressures, could vulture funds then sue Ireland in response? I want that question answered. Let us look at the recent ruling from the ECJ, when it awarded damages to asylum seekers because of the State’s failure to provide suitable accommodation. It seems more and more that rather than simply being a part of the European Union, we are being governed by it entirely. We are leaving ourselves in a situation where Irish law has little meaning if it can simply be superseded by EU law. We all support attempts to further trade and deepen ties with trade partners but not at such a reckless and high risk to the State. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-06/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:54+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-06