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

We have debated these things at length. I am in the Seanad's hands on that. I keep looking back to documents, comments and statements. I looked at a statement issued by the EU and Canada following the fifth meeting of the CETA joint committee. A joint committee was established. To be honest, the Opposition could have written this themselves:
...the Joint Committee adopted the CETA 'Interpretation on Investment', to clarify elements of investment provisions under CETA, notably “fair and equitable treatment”, “indirect expropriation”, and “investment and climate change,” and ensuring the Parties can regulate to achieve legitimate policy objectives such as in the framework of climate, energy, and health policies.
I keep saying it. Honestly, you could have written it yourselves. I do not know how much more I can say to counteract the worries, fears and, I would say, the scaremongering from some - not all - that keep being put forward in this debate. We can debate this as long as the Seanad wants - it has 90 days under the Constitution to make its mind up, I suppose. This could not be clearer. What we are concerned about is the enforcement of awards. Nobody in the public policy space, on this side, wants our right to regulate to be chilled. We are not here on behalf of companies that are going to sue the State for billions of quid. We have specifically provided that cannot be allowed to happen. We are here for our voters, our citizens and our people. Whether one likes international investment and trade or not - I am a big supporter but I know not everybody is - undoubtedly they have provided prosperity to people in a way they did not enjoy in the seventies. This land of milk and honey - it was a different country then. We are far more prosperous by any measure now. In fact, we are building more houses than at any time since then. We keep saying it. The Opposition keeps saying that is not correct and contradicting the written evidence in so many documents, including the very foundational treaty itself. I cannot put the matter any further.

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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