Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for an excellent presentation and testimony. I will fully support the call for us to write to the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Justice. The committee can probably go further and get its teeth into this matter and take a lead on it. Mr. Walsh outlined that work on the legislation has already started. Perhaps it might be an idea for us to engage in an informal pre-legislative process and get into the work. This is a suggestion I am making more to the committee than the witnesses. Perhaps we should start getting our teeth into an informal pre-legislative process and begin to organise the questions that will arise and bring them to other committees.

Recently at EU level, we have had the Singapore trade agreement. In this regard, human rights abuses were raised. How does legislation targeting corporations impact on EU trade agreements such as that with Singapore where significant issues regarding human rights violations exist? What can be done at this level?