Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-20
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Frances Black (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

The point I made is that the Minister of State quoted the so-called safeguards from the Canada trade deal or other previous agreements but the legislation before the House is not limited to Canada or Vietnam or Mexico. It will open up investor courts for any future trade deal with any country in the world, with or without those safeguards, by simple ministerial order - no primary legislation or real debate needed. That is a fact.
Second, the key point the Minister of State did not address in his response is who will actually interpret those so-called safeguards. Who will do that? It will not be Irish courts with public judgments and years of case law; it will be investor courts. The words can be as nice as you like, but it matters who interprets the public interest, and that is what is substantially different.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-20