Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-06 ============================================================ Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí as na dtuairimí a chur siad roimh an tSeanaid anocht. I again remind people that the ultimate reason we are doing this is to put Ireland in a position where we can ratify various trade agreements. That is a separate process. Free and open trade has been at the heart of the Irish economy for decades. Multilateral agreements have been at the heart of Irish society and Irish life for decades, and the compromises that result from multilateral agreements have been at the heart of our economy, society and legal system for decades and are in fact a feature of any sovereign, independent State. We shifted our trade policy from protectionism toward an outward-looking, free trade approach and lifted millions of Irish people out of poverty by supporting job growth and investment. Since joining the European Economic Community, EEC, as it was called in 1973, Ireland has emerged as one of the biggest investors and recipients of foreign direct investment worldwide. This has been transformational and a critical source of capital for developing new industries and innovative technologies at home and abroad, and now Irish companies are also investing around the world. We are in the top ten investors in Canada and in the USA. We promote this investment. We want an environment that is attractive, resilient and competitive for foreign investment in order that we can create jobs. This economic model has created hundreds of thousands of jobs for our people and raised our quality of life in standards and wages. It is an economic model we must protect and allow to grow. Ratifying CETA is a priority for the Government. The Government is committed to its ratification and supporting and working with Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič to support an ambitious EU trade agreement promoting new free trade agreements. In order to ratify this CETA agreement and the Chile agreement, an amendment to the Arbitration Act is necessary. We cannot take our economic success for granted. We must diversify our trading partners and do agreements and compromises with other countries in order that we may grow and create jobs and opportunities for all of our people. On our behalf, the European Union, which we are a part of, operates one of the most extensive trade networks on the globe with more than 40 countries, including Asian-Pacific regions and regions in the western world, all promoting a system of rules dedicated to open and fair competition. Our trade and investment and people to people relationships with Canada are deep, growing relationships resulting directly in huge employment. Our trade with Chile is more modest but it is growing and we can do more in relation to this. The Eu’s new investment protection chapters provide a robust legal framework that has been examined, verified, studied, interpreted and agreed by EU member states, the Council and the European Parliament. This is European democracy; we are the European Union. The investment protection provisions liberalise market access, simplify administrative procedures and encourage reciprocal investment. They do nothing in relation to the scare stories the Opposition is putting forward. Companies investing in Ireland want assurance. Irish companies want assurance when they go abroad. The investment protection provisions include the principals of non-discrimination, fair and equitable treatment and compensation in case of expropriation. They do absolutely nothing to affect a state's ability to regulate. The approach of the Government in bringing forward the legislation has been questioned by many Senators. As Senators are aware, in the Costello case, the Supreme Court not only identified constitutional concerns that prevented the ratification of CETA as Irish law then stood, it also identified a legislative path for curing the very concerns that had been identified. We have a Supreme Court decision that told us that if we wished, if it was within our prerogative as an Oireachtas or a Government, we could cure the constitutional concerns by amending the arbitration act. --- 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