Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Friday, 27 March 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Discussion

2:10 pm

Mr. Matt Carthy:

Part of the difficulty with ISDS is the very threat of it. There is a very well known case involving the Egyptian minimum wage. The Egyptian government backed down because of the threat made. This is what many large companies do. They threaten governments about regulations which force them to withdraw. This is why ISDS is such a challenge to democracy, rather than the actual outcomes of the hearings themselves.