Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with all the positive remarks about Canada. I have been there many times and I have family there.

There are very deep links with people here, particularly among people in the North and particularly those who live in Toronto. However, notwithstanding the Fianna Fáil leader's protestations, there are concerns about the implications of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, especially among farmers, workers and small and medium indigenous companies. The Government has ignored those and there has been no debate on these issues. This is the place where we should have had this debate and I have been asking for one for some time. The only vote in these Houses was in the Seanad, which called on the Government not to ratify the deal. The European Court of Justice, which took the EU-Singapore free trade agreement, FTA, as a test case determined that these new agreements can only been concluded by the EU and member states acting together and by the state parliaments having a vote on them.

There needs to be a debate. The Government has signed up to this provisional application of the deal at EU level without any deference to the Dáil. We have been given legal opinion to the effect that a referendum would be required before the Government can sign the final agreement on CETA. Does the Government have advice? Has it sought a legal opinion from the Attorney General and what is the Taoiseach's view of this issue?

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