Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Most independent observers of CETA will point to excessive liberalisation and deregulation and its weakening of the Government's right to regulate in the public interest. Last month, 450 civil society organisations from the EU and Canada published an open letter urging legislators to vote against CETA in February. They were all in agreement that CETA's investment court system, ICS, granted highly enforceable rights to investors but no corresponding obligations. It does not enable citizens, communities or trade unions to bring a claim when a company violates environmental, labour, health, safety or other rules. It risks being incompatible with EU law, as it establishes a parallel legal system, allowing investors to circumvent existing courts. The ICS is discriminatory because it grants rights to foreign investors that are neither available to citizens nor to domestic investors. This being the case, how can the Minister claim that labour rights will be protected?

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