Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

I wish to speak to amendment No. 6, which seeks to address the fundamental issue with the Bill. The Government has imagined a fantastical situation where investors who believe that they may not be successful in obtaining an award through the process outlined in this Bill would simply accept that. There is nothing in this Bill that prevents investors from seeking enforcement in foreign courts or at international bodies such as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
There are numerous examples of enforcement being sought in foreign jurisdictions. One particularly egregious example is a recent case taken against Spain as part of the enforcement saga of investment treaty arbitration awards issued in renewable energy disputes. A Luxembourg investor secured a seizing order from the British courts directed at property owned by the Government of Spain in London. In March of last year, the European Commission ruled that paying this award constituted illegal state aid and directed the Spanish Government not to pay it. By virtue of its exposure to investor courts, Spain had assets seized in Britain and then we were told by the Commission that this was illegal state aid.
Has the Government carried out any risk assessment of this happening in Ireland if we expose ourselves to investor courts? Is it the Minister of State’s understanding that investors may seek enforcement outside Ireland? If that is the case, why would investors, who think they may not be successful in an Irish court, not seek enforcement elsewhere?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-09