Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Constitution has offered investors far more protection than has ever been envisaged by the ISDS mechanism. We have very strong protections for companies and no one has complained that those protections have been abused.

As I outlined in an earlier reply, the ISDS mechanism that has been put in place by Europe has been dramatically narrowed compared to the versions in some of the older investment agreements, which the Deputy rightly criticises. The Deputy needs to read the new provisions, which are much narrower. One must show demonstrable wrongful discrimination against a company in order to use this as a basis for taking a case. There will be an appeal mechanism under the agreements. Those who will hear the cases are persons who are fit to be appointed as judges, and the EU will be involved in their appointment. The procedures will be transparent and new rules are being put in place. All of those protections are being brought in to deal with legitimate concerns that the system was not adequate in the past. The Deputy needs to evaluate these protections rather than continuing to repeat what was stated four years ago about some other agreement in some other place. This is about these agreements, and whether we are putting in the correct protections and whether they are in the public interest, and if the Deputy assesses them in a fair-minded way, he will see that they are.

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