Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My argument and the question I put is that the tide is going out with regard to ISDS. The fear is that if the State wants to introduce legislation, it has the chilling effect on the basis that the State has left itself open to being sued because the corporation has the legitimate expectation of profit. While that is fine, if we want to introduce legislation for the public good, for example on climate change or anything else, we certainly do not want it hampered by this.

It has also been said by many others that this State, Canada and the European Union, already have a number of courts systems that are fit for purpose. We are not talking about rogue legal states. A number of trade deals have been drawn up in the past while and there seems to be a move away and a decoupling from ISDS. I note that even Canada has been involved in some of these. Perhaps we need a wider arbitration system but it should be done on a global basis with all those protections to protect from the chilling effect.