Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

I have only been here for the very short time of a year but I am trying to get to grips with things. Sometimes, when people are talking, I ask myself what did they actually say. There were an awful lot of words there but I do not think the Minister of State addressed what we are looking for here today. On the capacity of the State being materially impaired to legislate or regulate in the public interest, we have really been trying to stress our point on that over and over and in different ways to get the Minister of State to answer it and he consistently does not answer it.
All I could pick up from what the Minister of State said in his response there on amendment No. 4 - about which we have been stressing about over and over and which is really what this comes down to - I have just written a note that the Minister of State said the judge asked us or warned us not to be overly prescriptive. I do not feel that is overly prescriptive at all. It is merely a mirror image of what the Government has written itself. The amendment mirrors what the Government drafted and the only significant change was in the proposed subsection(3)(c), which simply states that an award should not be enforceable where it would "materially impair the capacity of the State to legislate or regulate in the public interest". The Government is effectively exposing the country to arbitration courts. The Minister of State spoke in his response about trade. We are talking about arbitration courts here, not trade and jobs. Yes, the Minister of State says in his response there is €12 billion of trade with Canada. That €12 billion of trade is happening without this agreement. He still has not explained the need for this agreement as it is or the reason he is refusing to accept amendment No. 4.
On amendment No. 6, Senator Clonan brought up the socialisation of the debt and exposing Irish citizens and future generations to the financial risk. If there is one thing I have learned from just being a layperson, it is that we are constantly listening to how mistakes have been made. We are constantly being told about previous errors that governments were warned about but refused to listen to and there is a pattern and history of this. I know exactly what the Minister of State will say in a few years' time. He will say we were dealing with the best advice available to us. That will be too late. All we are asking the Minister of State to do is listen to proposed amendments that we see as protecting our sovereignty and our taxpayers against possible exposure to huge fines or penalties.
On the Trócaire point, Trócaire is speaking because it has seen the damage from arbitration tribunals up close. That is why it is speaking. I do not think the Minister of State has covered the chilling effect.
On this side of the House, we are all in agreement about the chilling effect caused. Whereas we can see it happening, the Minister of State has not pointed out that it is not. I ask him to accept amendment No. 4. It is not overly prescriptive, as he has said. It is fair and would endorse our sovereignty. The Government is focused on giving additional rights to corporations and not protecting the Irish taxpayers, who will eventually end up paying the bill because of the "best advice" that was available to us at the time. I sometimes go back up to my office and say I do not know what has been said in the Chamber. This is because an awful lot of it is bluster. I deal only in direct, clear language, and we have been very clear on this side about what is wanted. There has been a disingenuous approach to what we are asking for. Many times before, issues with legislation have cropped up that have been warned about. I ask the Minister of State to consider amendments Nos. 4 and 6.

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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