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

In terms of inducements for investors into the country, one of the biggest inducements is the fact of a free trade agreement. One of the biggest reasons companies invest in this country is because we have free trade agreements and stability. Far from negatively affecting Ireland's competitive advantages, there are quite a number of advantages to ratifying CETA from the perspective of attracting FDI. Ratification of agreements that include investment dispute resolution provisions, reduces investment risk through access to neutral binding dispute resolution and lowers the legal and political risk while enhancing our foreign direct investment offering.
The Bill will enable the ratification of major trade and investment agreements, thereby opening access to new markets and encouraging cross-border investment flows into Ireland. Ratification of such agreements helps to align Ireland with global investment standards and brings Ireland in line with EU and international frameworks. It reinforces us as modern, rules-based investment destination. Overall, it improves Ireland's competitiveness for FDI through a clear and transparent process which is available to investors in the countries with which we compete for FDI. This can serve to make Ireland more attractive when competing for foreign direct investment. Where Ireland is the global or regional headquarters for companies that operate here, it can offer them an additional layer of confidence when managing their global operations and footprint.
The question about why we are exposing the State to a new financial risk is asked time and again. I reject that we are doing that. Irish domestic law also has many similar provisions that are in the CETA agreement. In fact, it is not just me saying that these cases might be remote, Ms Justice Dunne also said:
It is difficult to imagine a provision or measure of Irish law which would amount to a breach of CETA, giving rise to a claim which would not, of itself, give rise to a claim before the Irish courts, arising out of the same circumstances.
The Senator has spoken again and with a lot of repetition on this and I feel that at times I am obliged to repeat things that I said already. The Senator has spoken at length on fair and equitable treatment. It is important to stress that the standard of fair and equitable treatment that is drafted under the new investor court system is quite different from the old approach and the fair and equitable treatment provision under the old approach was opaque and based on customary international law, which I have said already, with no description of content. The agreement clearly lists the aspects of fair and equitable treatment. They are denial of justice, manifest arbitrariness, targeted discrimination and manifestly wrongful grounds such as gender, race or religious belief. The Irish State does not do that.

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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