Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel

I move amendment No. 13:
In page 4, to delete lines 24 to 38 and substitute the following:
“(5) Subject to subsection (6) and (8), the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade may, after consultation with the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, prepare an order to prescribe an international agreement as an agreement to which this section applies where—
(a) the State is,or intends to become, a party to the agreement,
(b) the agreement is wholly or partly concerned with the protection of investment, and
(c) the agreement provides for the making of awards pursuant to its investment dispute resolution provisions.
(6) Before making any order under subsection (5) the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade shall—
(a) after consultation with the Minister, The Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, prepare a detailed estimate of potential claims against the State arising from the agreement proposed to be prescribed, including based on the extent to which the State or public bodies have encouraged investors to invest in the State, and an associated statement,
(b) provide a copy of the estimate and the statement prepared under paragraph (a) to each of the Oireachtas Committees for each of the Ministers referred to in paragraph (a), and the Committees shall undertake such scrutiny of the proposed order as they shall determine, including hearing evidence directly from each of the Ministers referred to in paragraph (a), and the Committees shall make recommendations on the order and estimates accordingly for each of the Ministers to consider,
(c) each of the Ministers shall consider any of the recommendations from Committees arising from the scrutiny performed under paragraph (b), and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade shall again consult the Minister, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation in light of the recommendations of the Committees, and
(d) following the further consultation in paragraph (c), maintain the order and associated estimates as prepared under paragraph (a) or amend them accordingly on foot of the recommendations arising from paragraph (b) and the consultations under paragraph (b).
(7) If the Minister still wishes to proceed with the making of the order, he or she shall lay the order before both Houses of the Oireachtas, as prepared or as amended consequent on subsection (6)(c), together with his or her reasons for accepting or rejecting any recommendations of the Committee under paragraph (b) of that subsection.
(8) No order shall be made under this subsection, unless a resolution approving the order and the associated estimates has been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas, further to a debate in each such house of a duration no less than 3 hours.”.

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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