Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

What is happening here is that the Government, and the previous Government, very clearly wanted to have the Dáil ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and other trade agreements. A challenge was brought through the courts. The court said it was not possible under the current provisions, but it also said that if the Government wishes to do it, then, under its prerogative and the Dáil's prerogative, this is a way it could be done that would be constitutional. That is all we are doing here. There needs to be a separate debate in the Dáil then on the formal ratification of CETA and any other trade agreements it would apply to.
I cannot bring the matter any further in relation to the investor court system, except to state what I have stated on numerous occasions, namely, that this is a radically new procedure, with many checkpoints and improvements included to ensure that it is transparent and fair and - this is not a small point - that the State has the right to regulate. That could not be clearer from the text of the agreement and from the text of the joint interpretive statement. We heard a lot in previous debates about the European Court of Justice. The court has stated that the parties:
have taken care to ensure that those tribunals have no jurisdiction to call into question the choices democratically made within a Party relating to, inter alia, the level of protection of public order or public safety, the protection of public morals, the protection of health and life of humans and animals, the preservation of food safety, protection of plants and the environment, welfare at work, product safety, consumer protection or, equally, fundamental rights.
The Court of Justice of the European Union could not be clearer about this and what CETA is designed to achieve. The Opposition want to keep contradicting the text of CETA and the text of the joint interpretative instrument. The Supreme Court has made comments on this as well. I know what Senator McDowell said about obiter dictum but this was stated by a number of justices and in a full decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
This matter could not be clearer. This is an attempt by the Opposition some of whom, and I accept everyone's good faith on this, do not support trade agreements as a general principle. This Government supports trade agreements as a general principle and all trade agreements mean give and take on both sides. We know in Ireland's case, the take is much more significant in every trade agreement we have ever been a party to or entered into.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-28