Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am very grateful to Ms Drisdelle, Mr. East and Mr. Collenette for their insightful contributions to the debate so far. They are very useful and have been very informative to me. I note and welcome this shared agreement for all the reasons outlined. However, I am interested in understanding and I think the reason we are here today is to understand, at least for me it is. I understand we do not have these types of agreements with the US or the UK in respect of legal disputes and we have carried out trade with them for decades. This implies that the Canadian and Irish courts are not fit for purpose in the context of disputes. Considering that my questions have been asked by previous speakers and considering trust between countries, I have an alternative question. Is it possible to give examples of the types of disputes that might come up, considering so many are prohibited, as noted here today, including with regard to the environment, etc. The worry is that we hear sovereign states are being sued for billions by corporations across the globe. I say this considering we are a small open economy in which some multinational companies have bigger pockets than the State. I would be very grateful if the witnesses could give some examples of disputes that might come up because that would help me understand. We are, as I said, a small economy and if someone tries to sue us for billions of euro, it will seriously affect our economy.