I move amendment No. 4: In page 8, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: "Implementation guidelines 6. (1) The Minister shall make regulations governing the exercise of powers by members of An Garda Síochána in respect of the following matters and those regulations are referred to in this Act as "implementation guidelines": (a) the use of covert human information sources, and (b) the use of covert investigative activities involving the use of pretence or subterfuge with the purpose of facilitating other…

I thank the Minister for his reply. I sympathise with a number of the points he has made. It does seem that some things should be declared off limits, publicly. The Minister said that the courts, rules of admissibility of evidence and the like are sufficient to deal with a lot of these matters. Up to a point, I agree with him. His answer presupposes that unethical behaviours will have their comeuppance through the judicial and courts systems. I am not quite clear in my own mind that is always the case. People can b…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, and his officials. As I said in the very limited time that was available on Second Stage, I am totally opposed to the enactment of this Bill. I want to make a few points. First, I am fully in favour of free trade. I do not believe in tariffs. As between Ireland and Canada, I have no problems with the European Union concluding a trade with agreement with Canada for the importation and exportation of goods and services between the two jurisdictions, namely the mem…

None of them say it. None of them say, "This Act is clearly unconstitutional because we have written that into it." Nobody has ever made such a brazen attempt to put a fig leaf on a proposal which is either redundant or meaningless. My second point is that the Bill purports to say that these orders are not enforceable in the State but are enforceable everywhere else. Every asset of the Irish State anywhere in the world is amenable to an action. Let us suppose that we have reserves in banks in Spain, New York or Swi…

It will not happen. It simply will not. The European Court of Justice will say that, if we had written it into the agreement as a reservation and a protocol, then anybody investing in Ireland would have to be aware that there was this particular loophole in Irish law that allowed the Irish courts to refuse to enforce the agreement and it does not apply to the courts of any other member states before which such a case was brought. For that reason, the so-called escape hatch that the Supreme Court waved at the time i…

It could be the United States tomorrow. It could be any country you name that Ireland wants to do a deal with. It could be President Trump's rich friends launching an action against Ireland to enforce their rights in relation to some investment they have made. Once we put our neck in this particular noose and stand on this particular platform, we are going down a road. I accept that any such extension of this would require a decision by the Houses of the Oireachtas, but I have seen what the party Whip does in these…

I want to accommodate the Minister of State. I want a clear statement about whether we are going to incorporate the provisions of this Bill in any instrument or act of ratification. I want somebody who can answer that question, before the Minister of State goes.

It would be helpful to me, from looking at the list of amendments, to know which amendments will be discussed. The procedures of this House, which I fully respect, inform the individual proposer, but I do not know which of these amendments on the list are still on the agenda for discussion.

Is there a list? There is a whole rake of amendments here. I would like to know which amendments have been knocked out.

We are on Committee Stage. Apart from the Senators who have put down amendments, the other Members of the House are in a state of complete ignorance as to which amendments will be debated.

I ask the Minister of State for a simple answer because I think he answered the question I raised.

Is it the case that the Government does not intend to put any reservation, qualification or protocol to our ratification of CETA if this Bill is passed?

No, I am asking a simple question. It is a yes-no answer.

No. We are entitled to an answer on whether the Government does or does not intend to ratify this, subject to an express reservation of protocol in the instrument of ratification. That is all I want to know. I just want a "Yes" or "No".

Sorry, that is not the answer. With respect, it is an arrogant thing to say that it is not necessary.

Is it the intention of the Government to do it? I did not ask whether it was necessary. I asked whether the Government was going to do it.

I only ask that question because I do not want to waste the Minister of State's time. If he is saying that the Government does not intend to do it, that is one thing. If he is saying it is not necessary, that is another thing. I want to know which it is.

That is fair enough. Now, we have the answer. The Minister of State has criticised me for querying the views of the Supreme Court in relation to the amendment of the Arbitration Act. I want to say this one thing to the Minister of State at the very outset; I am a practising barrister. I appear before the Supreme Court on occasion. I have the greatest respect for that institution. Nobody in this House has a greater respect for it, but on this occasion, it set out what the Minister of State said was a pathway to rati…

There is no question of a filibuster here. I have put down no amendments for the very simple reason that no amendment, in my view, can cure what the Government is trying to achieve. CETA is incompatible with the Constitution, as it presently exists. Various members of the Supreme Court, for one reason or another, expressed a view that if you amended the Arbitration Act 2010, CETA would somehow become compatible with the Constitution. In other words, the absence of section 25A from the Arbitration Act, proposed to b…

I did not use the words "reckless" or "dystopian".