Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate that you cannot make the horse drink the water, but a drop of Ribena could be put in it, as if it was a child, to make sure the horse stays hydrated. I was in Vancouver earlier this year and I was struck by most of the businesspeople I was speaking to. I spoke to a number of trade unions too and to the consul. The focus is very much on expansion and growth, which was welcome.

I want to talk briefly about CETA and the investor court system. We know this gives multinational companies the right to sue governments for alleged breaches of their rights. Why does the Government remain wedded to enacting this aspect of CETA when we see other European countries disentangling from similar aspects of other treaties such as the Energy Charter Treaty? Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland have all announced their intention to leave the Energy Charter Treaty over these investment and arbitration courts. An oil and gas company, Rockhopper, is demanding €260 million from the Italians for banning new oilfields off its coasts. This is just an example of what is happening. Ascent wants €120 million from Slovenian taxpayers for prioritising the environment over gas with regard to fracking. The list goes on and on. There is direct evidence that these investor courts are not good for countries, people and definitely not taxpayers. I am struggling to understand why our Government remains wedded to involving the State in another court like this. Can the Minister of State enlighten me why that is, when the mood across the EU seems to be to leave these courts, as with the Energy Charter Treaty?