Trade Agreements
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-21
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Sinéad Gibney (SD), Dublin Rathdown

The Bill is two pages long but it will have an immeasurable impact on this country. As I said, we can continue our current arrangements with Canada without the investor court mechanism which undermines our regulatory ability. I will focus on the real dangers these investor courts present to us. They would hear cases from X against Ireland if we were to ban their undressing AI software. We have seen the prioritisation of big polluters' profits in Mexican investor courts and it is explicit that companies will be able to sue for loss of future profits because of regulation. That is not just in the area of climate; it is in areas like workers' rights as well. It is possible that the State would have to pay off X for the privilege of protecting the children of this country. Will the Minister of State accept that the introduction of investor courts is a serious danger to people's well-being and their rights under the European Charter of Human Rights?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-21