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

I thank Rupert and Mr. Brown for attending. I apologise for using his first name but I certainly was not going to take on his second. I imagine he might say the same about me.

In fairness, the witnesses have given some comprehensive answers. My view on the legalities is that we could bring in a different set of lawyers every week and never have complete agreement. My fear is the chilling effect, which Deputy Howlin dealt with. There is a fear that companies would have a right to legitimate expectations and could use the ICS as a means of taking the State to court. I have said it before and will say it again, and my view has not greatly changed, that I do not see why we would hamstring ourselves on this.

A considerable number of people query why we should sign up to this. Why would we not just allow the provisional application to continue? Everybody has talked about the wins, from a trade point of view, already in operation that do not relate to the ICS. These are not going anywhere. We know that 15 EU states have ratified and 12 have not. Cyprus has opposed CETA but has not notified the Commission. We know there are difficulties, particularly in Germany, France and the Netherlands. There are also people moving away from ISDS and being sued at this point in time as regards the Energy Charter Treaty, as mentioned by the witnesses. I accept the ICS may be different.

The EU is looking at some form of ISDS or dispute resolution model that would exist outside of trade deals. Where is that at this point in time? The bigger question is whether we can continue with the provisional application. There is not exactly a stampede of other states to, basically, sign off on the ICS. I do not see why we should be in rush to sign up to something a considerable number of legal minds, in disagreement with the witnesses, state would leave us open to being sued.