Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for his acceptance of this. There would have been an anomaly in that we would have been treating parties to arbitration differently depending perhaps on their geographic basis. For example, a different regime could apply depending on whether both parties were resident in Donegal or whether one party was resident in Donegal and the other in Belfast. We also believe there was unnecessary duplication between Article 24 of the Model Law and section 33 of the Bill. Taking everything into account, it is better to have as streamline an arbitration process as possible.

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