Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Laura Harmon (LAB), Industrial and Commercial Panel

The Minister of State said that the Opposition cannot handle the truth. I would ask him if he is dealing in the real world or auditioning for a role in the film "A Few Good Men". We can certainly handle the truth and we are exposing the truth here as part of this debate. That is what this amendment is about. We, here, in opposition are pro-EU. The Labour Party is pro the European Union and we are pro-trade that benefits Ireland. This amendment would further define the provision in section 25A(3) under which an award would be unenforceable if its enforcement would compromise the constitutional order of the State. It would specify that such an award would compromise the constitutional order of the State and therefore be unenforceable if it would expose the State to damages arising from an Act of the Oireachtas, a Bill referred to the Supreme Court by the President or a Supreme Court decision. The language currently proposed in this section of the Bill is almost laughably vague. It simply states that an award is not and never was enforceable in the State if enforcing the award would compromise the constitutional order of the State or the autonomy of the legal order of the European Union but it leaves those ideas totally undefined.
This amendment is an effort to define precisely what the compromising of the constitutional order of the State would involve. What it would avoid is the awarding of damages in cases where a private investor objects to the provisions of a law that has been passed by the Oireachtas and which has been upheld by the Supreme Court. It would also protect decisions of the Supreme Court itself from such awards. I hope the Government can accept this amendment. It is an entirely reasonable effort to spell out exactly what is being proposed in this Bill rather than asking this House to pass a Bill that leaves vital concepts completely undefined.
As we have said, we in the Labour Party are opposed to investor courts and opposed to this Bill but at the very least, we should be clear about what guardrails we can propose as part of this Bill.

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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