Mr. Eoin Bradley:

To reply to Deputy Tóibín’s questions, we have been in correspondence with the Commissioner regarding the report we produced last July on ISDS and its potential effect on Irish public policy. We have also had a meeting with the European Commission in Dublin as well as the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, all on the back of that report. The report is very clear on standards. It is not a question of if standards will be lowered but by how much. That will be the question if this agreement sees the light of day.

We have concerns on the public health front. In the UK, for example, there has been a lot of chat about the National Health Service, NHS. There is a question of how to strike the right balance between economy and society. We want to make sure standards are brought up to our level. On the other side of the Atlantic there are situations, particularly in the public health sector, where the standards are lower than they would be here. That is a huge concern for us.

On the economic benefit, the part of the report, done for us by Drs. Reynolds and Curtis, that sticks out for me is that after ten years the conservative estimate is that gross domestic product, GDP, will grow by approximately 0.2% and that would be the equivalent of every European being able to buy an additional cup of coffee every week. There is a cause for concern about the economic benefit for the people of Europe versus how standards may be cut ultimately.