Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Did the committee discuss the question of CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada, which has been a source of major controversy across Europe over the past number of weeks? CETA is seen to represent TTIP in Canadian clothes. The ISDS system is simply renamed "the investor court system" and provides corporations with the right to sue states if they interfere with the right to profit. The race to the bottom in regulation is reflected in the establishment of a regulatory co-operation forum. The forum will see a race to the bottom in consumer rights, labour rights and environmental rights in the interest of corporations. The fundamentally undemocratic nature of the agreement is reflected in the fact that it is a living agreement and an ongoing committee of so-called experts will play a role in drafting regulations to the detriment of workers and ordinary people and to the benefit of big business.

It is telling that for an issue that has no popular support whatsoever in Europe or Canada, such huge pressure was brought to bear on regional governments in Belgium, including the Walloon, Brussels and German-speaking governments. Immense pressure was brought to bear against their resistance and opposition in order to force them to accept the provisional application which has since been agreed.

I have some questions for the Taoiseach on the sub-committee. Did Ireland join in applying undemocratic pressure on regional Belgian governments in order to pressure them to agree to the signing and provisional application of the CETA agreement? Has the sub-committee considered whether there is any constitutional problem with the provisional application of CETA, given that Article 29.5.2° of the Irish Constitution states: "The State shall not be bound by any international agreement involving a charge upon public funds until the terms of the agreement shall have been approved by Dáil Éireann."? They have not been approved by Dáil Éireann, yet provisional application means that the investor court system now applies. That means a charge can apply on the Irish State if, for example, it told various Canadian corporations they could not do various things they consider as going against their right to profit, which represents indirect expropriation.

Considering the opposition and difficulty the European elites had with getting provisional application through and signing, never mind ratifying, the agreement, how does the Taoiseach feel about getting it through parliaments across the European Union? How will it be passed by this Parliament, given that the more people become aware of what are in international trade agreements the more opposition to them exists?

See this speech in context