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

I simply do not believe, nor do those watching us, that the right to profit will not take precedence over the right to regulate. The big winners will be large corporations and the losers will be small businesses, consumers, working people and the environment.

In the draft text the definition of "expropriation" is being expanded dramatically. We know have terms like "measures tantamount to expropriation", "indirect expropriation" and "regulatory expropriation". That means that any interference with the right of corporations profit is seen as expropriation.

Under ISDA, of which the Irish Government is one of the biggest champions in the whole of the European Union - the Minister signed a letter to that effect to the Trade Commissioner - corporations can sue in private arbitration tribunals. They choose the arbitrators and are able to win large amounts of money in compensation or, more likely in reality, freeze the ability of countries to regulate in the interests of their people or the environment. The examples go on and on in terms of ISDS. They already exist under NAFTA and will exist under CETA and TTIP.

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