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

The Senator said it is a new thing, there is too much risk and we do not know how it will work. The same could be said for every new thing. What do we do when we are introducing anything? We draft legislation. We cross the t's and dot the i's. We draft, create and craft the legislation to ensure it suits the needs that the Parliament wants to address. That is exactly what has been done with CETA. I have repeatedly stated here that the right to regulate is not impacted.
The Senator quoted from Article 8.39(3), but the provision is in keeping with the trend of limiting available remedies for investors. It is in line with the goal to preserve the regulatory space of states. What is envisaged is that where something that happens, which is in breach of CETA, such as deciding to seize the property only of Canadian companies, that would be modified. That is the modification we are talking about. We are not talking about what the Senator referred to, namely, that we would not be able to modify our laws under our right to regulate, which is part of who we are as a sovereign nation.
The Senator is conflating one thing with another. That is causing some confusion. There is no risk to the right to regulate. This is something that we can do. In fact, a huge amount of the right to regulate has been allocated to the European Union institutions and the European Union treaties and I do not hear a complaint about that because it works really well. We are not giving any right to regulate away in this particular operation. When we have done it in European Union treaties, it has been a massive benefit to Ireland to have common rules around the Single Market so that our companies can trade around Europe.
Due to the protections in this trade agreement, our companies can trade with Canada and create jobs. Our companies can go to Canada with assurance, protection and the knowledge that they will not be treated arbitrarily. That is needed. It does not affect the right of any province, government or municipality of Canada to bring in its own rules and regulations. Irish companies going to Canada know that.
The amendment proposes to assign an extremely broad discretion to the High Court regarding the enforcement of relevant awards. The Government has carefully considered the Supreme Court's findings in the Costello case. The Bill sets out the response, including the specification of the grounds on which awards may not be enforced in subsection (3). We looked to the Supreme Court, which is what one would expect a competent Government and Attorney General to do. We took the advice of the Attorney General and officials. We considered previous references to constitutional order in Irish case law, as well as addressing the enforcement of judgments of Irish courts.
Amendment No. 10 seeks to extend and expand on what has been carefully considered in order to produce a proper Bill. The Bill has been drafted to ensure compliance not just with the Constitution, but also the international obligations which Ireland will assume on ratification of the relevant agreements. Therefore, I cannot agree to this amendment.

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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