Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this agreement is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and Europe. The Minister of State is saying that he and his Department will monitor the situation, but if this agreement comes into effect, they will not have the power to be doing much monitoring of it. They will be watching things happen and they will not have much control over them. It is pretty frightening to see what this agreement could amount to, and it will give big business a right to sue governments which have the audacity to defend their citizens in many ways. This is a really dangerous agreement and there will be a panel of corporate lawyers in a position to overrule parliament and destroy our legal protections. That is being done through a mechanism called investor-state dispute settlement. It has already been used in other parts of the world, and it completely undermines and kills regulations that protect people and the planet.

Citizens and communities affected by these decisions will have no legal standing, and this will be an erosion of democracy. It could have huge implications for agriculture here.

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