Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

It does not narrow it. The language is very clear. The amendment states, "Without prejudice to the generality" and refers to "non-exhaustive examples of the operation of subsection (3)". There is nothing in amendment No. 14 that closes the frame or the discretion of the High Court. What it does is make clear very important instances whereby a Bill had been referred to the Supreme Court by the President, for example. We know that it is the case that if a Bill is referred to the Supreme Court by the President and that Bill is found to be constitutional that no individual may take a case in relation to that Bill. Its legality is so confirmed. The amendment is simply saying that the same kind of standard would be applied and that there would not also be a situation where a company would be able to seek compensation in relation to a measure contained in a Bill which had been given that imprimatur from the Supreme Court. That is a really important point. This is a situation where individuals would not be able to take cases in relation to the effects that the Bill may have on them but unless we are very clear there is the concern or danger that a corporation would be able to seek measures to ameliorate the impact of that measure on its finances, were those found to be unfair or inequitable. This is why it is important that the High Court would be empowered explicitly to be clear that it would be consistent with a very long-established practice of the precedence of rulings of the Supreme Court, particularly when referred to by the President.

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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