Let us be honest: every time we sign up to an international agreement – the EU is the most famous example of them all – we share a little bit of our sovereignty. That was the issue in our Supreme Court. Why do we share sovereignty? We do so because we all get huge benefits from it. We become part of something bigger and our people benefit. If I agreed with the Senator – I do not, although I respect her arguments – I would absolutely not be doing now what she proposes because it would be too late. We have gone throu…

As previously stated, the Government, with the help of the Attorney General, the legal advisers of the Department and my officials, whom I thank for their work, has carefully considered the Supreme Court's findings in the Costello case. I have said this repeatedly. Those findings encompass specific references to the constitutional order of the State. The Bill sets out the response to the Supreme Court judgment, including the specification of the grounds on which an award is not enforceable. We believe amendment No.…

We have debated these things at length. I am in the Seanad's hands on that. I keep looking back to documents, comments and statements. I looked at a statement issued by the EU and Canada following the fifth meeting of the CETA joint committee. A joint committee was established. To be honest, the Opposition could have written this themselves: ...the Joint Committee adopted the CETA 'Interpretation on Investment', to clarify elements of investment provisions under CETA, notably “fair and equitable treatment”, “indire…

It is standard practice in treaty implementation. It has happened with Mercosur as well.

That is not a scandal. That is not giving extra rights to people that are not in the treaties.

I respect Trócaire and Comhlámh. I still cannot understand why they would seek to insert themselves into this particular debate, which is between the EU and Canada, two of the most prosperous entities in the world. We have acknowledged that there were problems with the old system of ISDS and there problems in the Third World, which those organisations are right to highlight. To parlay that experience into an agreement between two capable actors on the world stage is not correct.

The Senator said it is a new thing, there is too much risk and we do not know how it will work. The same could be said for every new thing. What do we do when we are introducing anything? We draft legislation. We cross the t's and dot the i's. We draft, create and craft the legislation to ensure it suits the needs that the Parliament wants to address. That is exactly what has been done with CETA. I have repeatedly stated here that the right to regulate is not impacted. The Senator quoted from Article 8.39(3), but t…

I do not think I need to clarify this but when I spoke about it being too late I meant that if I agreed with the Opposition it would be too late to do what it wants to do. We would have done that earlier. I did not mean it was too late in the context of this legislation. Amendment No. 13 proposes to delete the order-making powers, as drafted, and introducing a new onerous system for making orders, including replacing the negative resolution requirements with a positive resolution requirement. Senators have raised q…

That is what I have to do. I cannot make things up. I have to read what is written down and what we are voting on.

I have been criticised for reading from text but our laws are text. I have to read from text to make my points. I cannot make things up. I have to read what is written down in black and white. I am speaking on behalf of the Government.

The text is highly relevant because I am quoting from documentation and from what we are voting on. I cannot just come in here and not read from text. We have to be very precise about what we are voting on. I am sorry that the Seanad does not have a vote on agreements that involve a charge on the State. That is the way the Constitution is written - for good reason actually because the Dáil holds the purse strings. That is just the way it is but the Seanad has a role because it has the power of annulment. There is a…

I can only comment on the amendment at hand. The amendment speaks about the avoidance of doubt but does not appear to reflect the current legal position in the Bill or in current law. The proposed amendment appears to be an attempt to circumvent the withdrawal provisions and any applicable sunset clauses included in a relevant international agreement through domestic law. The Bill has been drafted to ensure compliance with the Constitution and the international obligations Ireland would assume upon ratification of …

I know the way these things work. The Labour Party had a trade Ministry for a period of that Government, and trade Ministers would have been regularly informed by the Commission negotiators as to how the negotiations were going. This happens all the time in relation to trade agreements.

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…