Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

It is incredible that we are having another discussion on the European Council, yet there was not a single mention in the Taoiseach's introduction of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, discussions. It is ironic that we have just had a vote in the Seanad on protecting the water supply, but if this agreement goes ahead, the decision of the Irish people or any other European nation to protect its own resources could be in serious jeopardy as a result of the discussions behind the scenes on the TTIP. Every time we try to raise this matter in the Chamber the Government has a standard response, that it would be good for jobs. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, even went so far as to say it would deliver an extra 8,000 jobs for Ireland and that we would see an increase in GDP of 1.1%. These figures were plucked out of the sky and there has been no substantial research to verify them, never mind the bad analysis of GDP, given transfer pricing and profit repatriation, and the nature of the jobs created by the Government.

The TTIP talks serve as a great threat and there is no transparency. The leaked documents from them describe the sensitive alignments that will take place in private meetings of the proposed joint EU-US regulatory forum. That means that anything that will come out on paper will be ignored behind the scenes later. While the Government seems to be determined to keep this issue under wraps, in fairness, Irish farmers have begun to notice that their livelihoods will be in danger if these trade talks and the TTIP agreement go ahead. The harmonisation of agri-business trade legislation will, in essence, will lead to Europe being flooded with previously banned US beef which is not labelled and is filled with genetically modified contents. It will force Irish farmers to lower their standards in order to compete not only with US beef but also to deal with the threat posed by GMO crops.

The Taoiseach talks about the agreement being good for us and business, but what does he mean? The reality behind the agreement is that what the Government is calling the removal of trade barriers is actually the removal of protections for the public against multinationals and others interested in making a fast buck. That is really what the agreement is about and I would expect nothing less from Fine Gael, being the party of big business. The Taoiseach sometimes says we need a disputes resolution mechanism, but who is "we"? Is it the people of Egypt whose government was sued by a French multinational for raising the minimum wage? Is it the people of Germany who were sued by the nuclear industry for shutting down the sector? This is the direction in which the Government will go in the case of water services.

It is ironic that the mass movement on 11 October coincided with a movement of European citizens in Hamburg, London, Paris and elsewhere against the TTIP, yet the Minister of State and the Government have not even deigned to discuss these issues in this Chamber, despite the serious threat they pose to Irish citizens.

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