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

I thank the Deputy for her question. It is important to bear in mind that well over 200,000 Irish jobs are directly dependent on our trade. In the face of Brexit which will put pressure on companies selling into the UK market, it is important that Irish businesses gain access to other markets such as the Canadian market. This is an agreement which has been negotiated between the European Union and Canada to allow greater entry to the Canadian market for certain products such as Irish dairy products which, as the Deputy knows, have been blocked. It would open the market to many other Irish companies selling manufactured and other goods. The Canadian market is a good one. It is one in respect of which there is a lot of common knowledge and understanding of the trading approaches adopted. This is an area in which Irish business will use the opportunities provided by the removal of non-trade barriers and the reduction of tariffs to allow Irish companies to create employment. That will be important in the coming years. We need a strong trading economy to enable us to work our way out of our current position.

In principle, the agreements with Canada, the United States and other states are to be welcomed. Of course, as in any negotiation, we must ensure our interests are protected.

Particular concerns have been raised about, for example, the dispute mechanisms surrounding investor agreements, which, I understand, have not been carried through into the Canadian agreement. There will be amendments to those sections and they have been agreed by the trade Ministers.

This trade agreement will be brought before the House for debate in the usual way when its details have been finalised. That is the approach that has always been taken in these agreements. Under EU law, the EU Commission is responsible for the negotiations and it carries them out in an increasingly transparent way. Cecilia Malmström, the Swedish European Commissioner for Trade, has made huge efforts to make sure that trade unions and community groups, for example, get access to those papers in such a way that they can understand what is being negotiated. However, in the long term, a trade agreement is good for a small, open trading economy such as ours. We need those markets, particularly in light of Brexit. We need to look at the detail of this agreement and not to leap to the conclusion that any trade agreement is bad. We depend on trade agreements, and many overseas companies invest in Ireland because of the openness that we adopt to trade. I, therefore, ask the Deputy to suspend her judgment on this until we see the final document and the opportunities it presents and we protect ourselves against any risks. There are always risks in any negotiation.

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