Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

It is basically a different approach. That is a view that has been expressed by a minority of people who are interested in this area. The majority view that we have received is that aligning ourselves to the procedures laid down by the International Court of Arbitrators is the best way to proceed. Provision is made in the legislation for setting aside awards made for a number of reasons, including bad faith.

The whole focus of why we want to raise the arbitrator to a similar level of that of a judge — obviously a judge under the Constitution is not liable for any decisions he or she makes — is that we want the arbitrator to be regarded as the last bite of the cherry in terms of making decisions or trying to get agreement between parties who are in dispute. If one party feels aggrieved and he or she has a possibility of claiming bad faith on behalf of the arbitrator or some other infringement of the legislation that I hope we will pass, then the remedies under the legislation will be open to him or her. It depends on what way one looks at it; one could have gone the other way, but from the point of view of putting ourselves out to the international arbitration community as a place where business can be done, it is better that we align ourselves with the norm rather than the exception.

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