Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach mentioned opportunities and challenges, but there are also very serious and grave risks for countries attached to such agreements. We cannot provisionally apply CETA for a number of reasons. First, the EU is waiting for the decision from the European Court of Justice on the EU-Singapore free trade agreement, and that is not expected until the end of this year or early 2017, and there is also an issue with the legal analysis that ClientEarth has done. I urge the Taoiseach to look at that, because it found that the proposal was in violation of EU law. In addition, a German political party is filing a lawsuit against CETA in the German constitutional court. Will the Taoiseach indicate at the Council of Ministers meeting in October that we will not sign up to the provisional application of CETA, and in the meantime could he seek a ruling from the European Court of Justice on the ISDS? Under Article 218.11 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Ireland can seek to clarify the legality of the investment arbitration proposals in CETA. There are significant implications for Ireland if the ISDS goes through, because corporations and multinationals can sue the State for loss of profit and potential profit. The Taoiseach has agreed to have a debate on the issue. I hope we do not have to wait six months for the debate on this aspect of the agreement as we did for TTIP.

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