John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty with TTIP initially related to the proprietary negotiations that took place. Some 96% of the people involved in those negotiations represented corporate bodies, and the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the Human Rights Committee in Europe, for instance, were excluded. Even in America, many democrats and almost all of the trade union movement - like the trade union movement across Europe - have grave problems with TTIP because of the accountability issues relating to the negotiations and the amount of information being given to people. It is interesting that MEPs across different parties in Europe are saying they feel they have been excluded and their parliaments are being excluded. Quite bluntly, the ordinary everyday person does not know what TTIP is, and very few others do, because a lot of the negotiations are taking place in secret, which is the difficulty with TTIP and something that needs to change dramatically. As I said, even elements within the American Government have reservations about how it is being dealt with across Europe.