Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The evidence, in so far as we have it, does not bear out what the Deputy says. It does not fall on consumers. Consumers are among the beneficiaries because the agreement will result in lower prices. If tariffs and non-tariff barriers are taken out, there will be lower prices on both sides because they both are forms of increasing prices and, therefore, consumers will benefit.

With regard to wages, the model run for Ireland showed a 1.5% increase in wages. Again, the model suggests there will be benefits for our workers from the agreement. The fact that we can conduct more trade in dairy products, medical devices and pharmaceuticals means more earnings for companies, but it also benefits their workers. There will not be exclusivity whereby because we have more dairy exports and this will favour big businesses over producers. If we get our beef into the United States, as we have just done, and can sell premium cuts, everyone will benefit in the marketplace. Companies and their workers will do better and farmers will earn a higher premium if they can get quality products into strong markets such as the United States. That is not a valid criticism.

The Deputy cannot say it is an invasive treaty because nothing has been agreed to. This is about entering negotiations to reduce tariffs, bring down tariff barriers and provide for investor disputes. Nothing is agreed to at this stage. Some argue that there should not be an ISDS in the agreement. It is included in the Canadian agreement and nobody argued against it at the time. However, it has become an argument and we need to face up to it. There is some validity to the need to protect ourselves in an investor dispute. The Deputy's presumption is that this is bad, but we are big traders with the United States. Bringing down barriers in the United States is good for countries such as ours which trades with it and has investment with it. Therefore, I do not accept the assumption in the Deputy's question. The mandate which was agreed to before the negotiations started states: "Services supplied in the exercise of governmental authorities defined by Article 1.3 of GATT shall be excluded from these negotiations". Both chief negotiators confirmed after the seventh round that there would be no commitments on public services. This means that the TTIP will have no implications for health, education, social services and public utilities such as water provision. There is, therefore, a double lock. We excluded it from the negotiations mandate and both sides have stated they will not negotiate in this territory. It is excluded.

Turning to the issue of whether sectors will come under pressure, that could happen. In the Irish case, it does not look like there will be sectors that will be greatly exposed, although it is possible that some business services will face increasing competition and there will be threats and opportunities for both sides in the beef industry. The estimate of the impact is seven in every 1,000 over a ten-year period as it is rolled out. That will not be a huge impact compared to 5% of turnover in export-oriented companies every year. Fortunately or unfortunately, markets change and companies rise and fall.

It is not a big source of new uncertainty, whereas there is a real opportunity to grow the economy. Clearly we must be conscious of where the opportunities are and we must brace ourselves to deal with them.

On the question of tangible benefits for SMEs, they are throughout all sectors. Farmers are producers of dairy products and they would stand to gain. There are small players in the milk powder market and in software. If we gain access to public procurement, the beneficiaries will be mostly small Irish companies. The growth of services in the US has been significant. The pace of growth of Irish companies in the US is huge, and our services companies are growing more in the US than anywhere else. Our service companies are not growing anything like as fast in Asia as in the US. All the growth is coming from SMEs, small Irish owned internationally trading services companies. There are areas that will open up and if we get a good deal we will get tangible benefits. We need to push to get those opportunities.

The US is protectionist in terms of public procurement. It will be difficult to negotiate public procurement contracts. There will be tough negotiations.