Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
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I will definitely take the opportunity of getting a second question in. One of the questions on Ireland’s position concerns not what the country’s position would be on the modernisation of the treaty, but this question of whether Ireland’s position should now follow France and Spain in saying that the EU should walk away. That is the more important question. Anyone who has followed these long-winded negotiations in any detail will have seen that the reports are saying that no headway is being made at all. It would be more interesting to hear about what position Ireland should take in that regard. Should it join France and Spain and adopt their stance? I think more countries are coming around to that position.

The other aspect of interest to me, and I have read the paper written by Dr. Saheb on the modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty, concerns the impact of third-party funding and investor-state dispute settlement, ISDS, and how this is facilitating more ISDS cases being taken. Regarding the right to regulate, and a fight about CETA is under way in our national parliament now but I will not go into detail on that now, often when we read about the tribunals in this regard, in those papers which are available to the public, it is the case that they will recognise a state's right to regulate. The issue, however, is how much it costs a state to regulate in that context. Even if the EU does get its amendments in concerning the right to regulate and they are accepted, the key question then will be the cost to the citizens. If we are going to be undertaking the transition to a decarbonised future by staying in the Energy Charter Treaty, are we just making the transition much more expensive for ordinary people, when it is already going to be very expensive?