Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be very clear, it is always open and should always be open to states to change their rules and regulations if they believe it is in the public interest to do so. I have been a member of three governments and have done that regularly. Notwithstanding that, a policy certainty is good for business. If a business is making a long-term investment, it wants to be aware of that, so any time we change the rules, we must take the effect of that into account. We have to balance those considerations.

It might be helpful to state what is actually in the agreement. It is very clear in my mind. It says that a party breaches the obligation of fair and equitable treatment if a measure or series of measures constitutes a denial of justice in criminal, civil or administrative proceedings or a fundamental breach of due process, including a fundamental breach of transparency in judicial and administrative proceedings, so a company has to get over a very high bar to prove it has been mistreated. Again, it says in the agreement for certainty that the mere fact a party regulates, including through modification of its laws, in a manner that negatively affects an investment or interferes with an investor's expectations, including its expectations of profits, does not amount to a breach of an obligation under this section, so I think there are very clear protections and there is a very high bar for companies.