I can say this for a fact. We are constantly updated. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, was on the phone yesterday with the Commissioner, Mr. Šefčovič, about the various trade agreements he was negotiating on our behalf, and this would absolutely have been the case when the Labour Party was in government when this was being negotiated.

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 wort…

I am not here to discuss that.

All I will say is that the experience with investment dispute resolutions to date has been raised. Our experience of the entirety of what the Opposition is talking about is extremely limited. We were previously party to one bilateral investment treaty, which was with Czechia. That lapsed when it joined the European Union. The Senator mentioned the Energy Charter Treaty. We deposited notice of withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty with the Energy Charter Secretariat. That is well known. Regarding this legislatio…

We are codifying the law. In the Supreme Court it was said that if an enforcement was in breach of the constitutional order of the State then it would not be enforceable and therefore, with this legislation we are simply codifying that. That is what we want to achieve here.

Senator Andrews is ascribing this dramatic power to the Government that we can just sign up to an international agreement, it will destroy the country and mean we will be sued until we have no money left in this country, and that we can do this without going back to the Seanad. We cannot do that. I think the Senator knows that. Coming forward with these fantastical ideas that somehow, what we are trying to do is some secret way to bankrupt the country because of some agreement that we reach-----

This legislation is very straightforward. There was a Supreme Court decision, which said ratification of CETA was unconstitutional. However, the Supreme Court said there was something that could be done if the Government wished to and that would make it constitutional. That is all we are doing here. That is exactly what we are doing. The legislation has been very carefully drafted with the assistance of the Attorney General based on the Supreme Court decision. The Opposition completely ignores the fact that totally…

If we take the steps-----

But the point is-----

But it all comes back to this.

It is about a trade agreement. That is why I am talking about trade.

If we do not ratify this trade agreement - this legislation is needed for us to ratify it - the thing collapses. That is in the regulatory impact assessment.

If the thing collapses, all those jobs - not just in Ireland but across the EU - that depend on trade with Canada could be lost. I am sorry it is not fashionable to talk about the fact that we need international agreements that have some elements of compromise and an element of sharing of sovereignty, but they bring huge benefits to us all. The EU itself is the classic example of all that. The Supreme Court has given us guidance as to how to do this in a constitutional way. The Government is obliged to examine and …

No, the benefits are huge. I was criticised for reading the text.

They could be like me. I am a graduate of the law school.

They probably would not want to be.

Every time we have had a referendum, Sinn Féin has campaigned against the very principle outlined in the treaties of the European Union so I do not understand why this has suddenly become a big issue. I have to question the good faith of this amendment. Everything we do is in accordance with the legal advice of the Attorney General, who is more conscious than most of our obligations under EU law. Again, those obligations are massively to our benefit, contrary to the line Sinn Féin has peddled over 50 years of oppos…

Enforcement is a matter for each member state and we are doing that here in our legislation.

I am going to answer this question on behalf of the Minister. I propose to take Questions Nos. 120 and 122 together. As the Minister has already outlined, this legislation is a key priority for the Government. The commitment to undertake this necessary reform of the triple lock is set out in the programme for Government. The triple lock is a statutory mechanism. It is established under statute and is not a constitutional mechanism. Any change does not require a referendum. The Deputy has criticised NATO leadership …

It is continuing.