Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I totally oppose the motion. While Brexit presents difficulties for us and will have a huge impact on us, the solution to these is not to rush to embrace CETA or TTIP or for us as a Parliament to tout those as a solution to the difficulties that Brexit poses. Thankfully, TTIP is probably dead but the EU has agreed to provisionally ratify CETA. A motion needs to be passed by the House for Ireland to agree to the provisional ratification but the agreement presents huge difficulties for us. Even if we reject the provisional ratification, the EU ratification will stay in place for three years. Irreparable damage could be done, therefore, during that period, even if we stood up for ourselves. The Seanad voted against the provisional ratification and, therefore, the Government should be aware of the views of parliamentarians in this regard.

Free trade agreements such as these do nothing for the benefit of ordinary citizens and workers in the countries in which they are imposed. There are many cases around the world of corporations pursuing governments for taking decisions in the interests of their citizens and public policy. We would have our hands tied if we decided to go down the road of adopting these agreements. We must oppose them.

The Government did not identify opt-outs for us in CETA. This, for example, will leave the education sector open to competition from MNCs that want to change Government policy to privatise the sector and educational institutions. Recently, the former Labour Party leader, Ruairí Quinn, formed an alliance with a multinational education provider to secure students for colleges across the country. It is a small step for the provider to seek to take over our institutions or to push for their privatisation. When CETA is ratified by the Canadian Parliament and is provisionally ratified here, it will abolish the current 8% tariff on lobsters imported into the EU, which will have a direct impact on small fishermen around our coast. That will impact on the price they can secure for their lobster. The Government's response is it is opening up the Canadian market to fish exports and, therefore, that will be okay but that will not benefit small fishermen in Donegal and around the coast who will experience a drop in prices because of imports from Canada. The US exported 800 tonnes of lobster to the EU over the past three years even with the tariff. The Canadian lobster exports will, therefore, become more attractive when no tariff is in place. These are examples of the impact CETA will have across the country.

The motion is wrong and misguided for that reason and it should not have been tabled. Fianna Fáil has tabled it, however, and many of its Members have been trumpeting away over the past while in the House about the need to adopt more public private partnerships. The agenda the party wants to pursue is to liberalise markets and to make it easier for predatory companies to benefit on the backs of ordinary citizens when it should protect them to ensure public services can be maintained and provided free in the public interest rather than being opened up to MNCs and forcing the State to adjust public policy to facilitate them and their profit taking.

9 o’clock

That is all I want to say. This motion should be rejected. Indeed, if the Government puts forward an amendment, I will probably vote against that too because the Government is going hell for leather towards CETA in any event.

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