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

I cannot put it any further. The reality is, although the Senators say this is about the investor courts - and in fairness their argument is about that; that is a fact - they keep giving precedents that are not relevant and they also ignore the fact that if we make a decision not to ratify this agreement, the agreement will collapse. That is the language of the Government's regulatory impact analysis. The agreement will collapse and we will lose its benefits.
I do not know whether the Social Democrats, the Labour Party or anyone has told the Commission they think this should be renegotiated. The reality is that the Commission is negotiating many other trade agreements at the moment, all of which would bring serious benefits to Ireland. Each one of them would bring important benefits to Ireland and it is important we continue to make the case for trade and being out there in the world. Any time there is an agreement between two sovereign states, there will be a bit of give and take on both sides, including in this case in relation to the investor protection clause. That is simply the reality. The idea is that there will be an overall benefit, on an overall, practical and non-ideological basis, that it will benefit the people of the country, protect their jobs and protect and enhance the wealth of the country. People have mentioned the close connection between Canada and the EU. The CETA agreement has led to that.
I do not understand the point about using security and defence of the EU as a point of leverage with Canada. Perhaps that can be explained. Perhaps that is the agenda behind this. I do not know.

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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