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

We have agreed together at EU level to have a trade and investment agreement with Canada. Therefore, it makes absolute sense that it would be a collective decision to terminate it. I cannot envisage circumstances in which we would want to end the agreement. In the case of Ireland alone, we have seen bilateral trade in goods and services increase from €3.2 billion in 2016 to more than €12 billion in 2024. This supports thousands of jobs. I hear all of these allegations that there is going to be billions of euro worth of liability. Nobody talks about the billions, specifically €12 billion in 2024, in trade in goods and services; it is a case of that being grand and it just happens. It does not just happen, actually. It happens because of the entrepreneurial skills of Irish people and Canadians, and because politicians have negotiated trade agreements. All trade agreements and all international agreements involve some level of compromise. There is give and take but the point of that give and take is that everyone benefits in the end. I really believe this is the case with CETA and the other trade agreements the European Union has entered into and from which we get huge benefit.

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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