Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

Let us be honest: every time we sign up to an international agreement – the EU is the most famous example of them all – we share a little bit of our sovereignty. That was the issue in our Supreme Court. Why do we share sovereignty? We do so because we all get huge benefits from it. We become part of something bigger and our people benefit. If I agreed with the Senator – I do not, although I respect her arguments – I would absolutely not be doing now what she proposes because it would be too late. We have gone through the procedures. Luckily, we have dealt with the procedures in the negotiation of CETA. In the various documents that have arisen from that, we have dealt very comprehensively with the rights to legislate and regulate. I am representing the Government and we do not feel chilled about this in any way whatsoever, because the text is in black and white. I cannot put it any clearer. We keep hearing about cases from a different system, a different era. Mexico was referred to. Such an agreement would probably be ratified using this procedure here.
I cannot put my case any further. We do not envisage any impact on the right to regulate. I have quoted at length from the agreement on that.

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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