Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-20
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

I have no difficulty in answering the Senator's queries but I have repeated myself many times - though not, I acknowledge, on this next point.
Comments have been made on the provisions regarding fair and equitable treatment in CETA. It is important to stress the standard drafted under the investor court system is quite different from the old system. The fair and equitable treatment provisions under the ISDS system - the old system that is not in this treaty - were opaque and based on customary international law. There was no description of content. The new types, including in CETA, clearly lift the aspects of fair and equitable treatment. Examples of these are denials of justice, manifest arbitrariness, targeted arbitration and manifestly wrong grounds such as gender, race or religious belief. The investor court system provides clear guidance to the dispute resolution tribunals on applying the standards. This detail and clarity is an improvement on the old system. Many examples put before us in the Seanad have been based on the old system and that system has been changed.
In order to ensure the tribunals in all circumstances respect the intent of the parties, which are the states, the EU and Canada, the agreements make provision for the issuance of binding notes of interpretation where serious concerns arise on matters of interpretation. The joint interpretative instrument on CETA confirms that "Canada and the European Union and its Member States are committed to using these provisions to avoid and correct any misinterpretation of CETA by Tribunals." CETA's joint interpretative instrument explains that Canada and the European Union and its member states are committed to monitoring the operation of all these investment rules, to addressing in a timely manner any shortcomings that could emerge and to exploring ways in which to continually improve their operation over time.
That answers the point.

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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