John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree, although I do not think we should be bound by that. We can strengthen whatever comes from the EU and that work needs to start now. For far too long, human rights have been impacted negatively by Irish companies such as the ESB, which imported coal for decades from the Cerrajón mine in Colombia to create electricity in this State while indigenous people's rights were trampled on. Similarly, Airbnb operates in occupied Palestinian territories, and because there is no mandatory binding legislation here, they were allowed to do that.

The facts speak volumes; a voluntary treaty or system simply does not work. If we are serious about human rights, this needs to be done on a mandatory basis. I welcome some of the work going on within the EU but it should not tie us down. We can supersede that and go further, in the same way as Germany, Norway and France.

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