Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

The key thing is that the corporations do not have to necessarily have this. We have seen a huge dilution of climate laws. The Minister of State quoted from CETA, which my amendment did not even relate to. My amendment related to new and other agreements. For example, the US has left the Paris Agreement. Will Europe negotiate a new trade deal with the US and will Ireland become party to arbitration measures under that if the US remains outside the Paris Agreement - "Yes" or "No"? Is that going to be part of it? Is it going to be there? We do not know.
This is the key point. We do not know the countries with which agreements may be made and we do not know what conditions may be attached to them but we do know that we will not even have the opportunity to waive pre-legislative scrutiny the next time this comes around. It will simply be a vote of the Dáil and that is going to be the decision - a Minister's proposal and a whipped vote of the Dáil - in relation to any future potential trade agreement with any kind of future arbitration agreement measures attached to it. There is absolutely no guarantee as to what they will be besides the Minister of State's hope for what it might be. Sadly, we have already seen a huge dilution of climate action over the past couple of years, which is a very worrying signal. We have not seen a strong and robust push back against the US in terms of it leaving of the Paris Agreement. In fact, we have said we will buy its LNG. We will buy its LNG, which is one of the most damaging fuels to the environment, produced in a country that has said it will not abide by the Paris Agreement. I would not be so confident and that is why I was looking to put in that safeguard so that, at a minimum, we would ensure that unknown future trade deals with unknown arbitration measures attached that the Minister may look to tie up by a single Dáil vote will only be with countries that are part of the Paris Agreement.

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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