Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask the Minister about the letter of 21 October 2014 to the trade Commissioner, which he co-signed with a number of other trade Ministers across Europe. The essence of the letter was to argue for the maintenance of the investor-state dispute settlement, ISDS, mechanism, which gives privileged access to corporations to justice against states that attempt to regulate in the EU-US free trade agreement, the so-called TTIP. Did the Government give the Minister a mandate to sign the letter? Is it the official Government position to argue for the inclusion of ISDS, and has there been a response yet from the trade Commissioner?

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