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

I would be highly sceptical of the promised growth figures form the Commission. Similar figures promised for the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, never materialised - in fact, a million jobs disappeared. Professor Clive George, who has previously done impact assessments for the European Commission, has noted that its model is highly speculative and said that the actual likely increase in growth rate is 0.01% per year over a ten-year period. Why do we need these for certainty of investment? Does the Minister think there is a fundamental flaw in the US justice system? Does he think there is a fundamental flaw in the European justice system? Why is the regular access to justice that any ordinary person can get not good enough for the corporations? Why do the corporations want to have the right, and why does the Minister want them to have the right, to sue in private tribunals where they get to choose the arbitrator? They pay them an average of $3,000 per day and get to invoke causes such as indirect expropriation, in the case of a challenge to fracking in Canada, where a corporation, Lone Pine, is suing for almost €200 million because of a moratorium on fracking. There are also challenges against a moratorium on nuclear power in Germany and challenges by the cigarette industry.

See this speech in context