Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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I welcome our guests, and I wish Ms Smyth the best of luck in her new role. The Minister of State has himself well-ensconced at this stage.

What is happening is very interesting, and I am grateful for the opportunity. We are certainly looking forward to going out to Canada. I want to echo the Chair's comments about Deputy Stanton, who has certainly driven this initiative. I am very happy to support it and I am looking forward to getting out.

It is interesting when we talk about the relationship with Canada. In Waterford, we have a very strong relationship with Newfoundland, where they still have small communities out there who speak with Waterford accents. There is a large extended family of Powers out there, so Waterford knows about Canada for quite some time. It is interesting looking at Jim Power's report, when one analyses not the locations but the sectors we are doing business in, how strong it is with regard to the organic and inorganic chemical areas and products. It is a really huge amount of the export that we are doing. It is obvious that we have not even begun to tap other potential in the Canadian market.

From my point of view, I am most interested in the FDI component. There is a huge opportunity there, and that is what I hope to speak people about out there. In Waterford, we have Sun Life, and we are very grateful to have it. It is very progressive Canadian company in Waterford. There is a huge opportunity to build, particularly across the south-east region, in fintech. I hope that is something we can discuss.

I want to come back, if I may, to this issue of CETA, which has come up in this committee a number of times. Deputy O'Reilly highlighted her concerns about the investor courts. I do not think we have got to the end of that discussion. Could the Minister of State indicate why we have to ratify this agreement, considering it is in place to a large degree for the last number of years and is working well? What is the rush for Ireland to be seen to ratify this, and why can we not allow other countries among the 28 to see what their position is going to be about it?