Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will reply to the situation pertaining to CETA, as it was raised first. I have welcomed the clarity the Supreme Court has brought to the issue in respect of the manner in which CETA can be ratified. The ruling by a 6:1 majority was that CETA could be ratified by the Oireachtas if certain changes were made to domestic legislation, in particular the Arbitration Act 2010. The Deputy opposite criticised me for raising free trade but it is my view that her party has been very negative about CETA and has never commented on the benefits of the free trade deal with Canada, which as she outlined, has provisionally been in operation for five years. Trade has increased by 30%. It is good for jobs in the country. I have never heard ringing declarations from Sinn Féin about free trade. It has always been the opposite, consistently, in recent years. That has been Sinn Féin's position. The party is entitled to have the position it has held, and it may change it. I am even beginning to detect subtle hints of change already in the Deputy's contribution this afternoon. We will see.

More fundamentally, I would make the point that all the free trade agreements have a standard practice globally of using arbitration mechanisms. It is not to enable companies to sue countries on anything but rather to make sure that the terms of the actual agreement are met in terms of fairness and the application of the rules pertaining to any agreement. It is very clear that as a member of the European Union, we cannot engage in any practice via the trade agreements that would be contrary to the treaties. It is the European Union, specifically the Commission, that negotiates these trade agreements with parties like Canada, which is a liberal democracy itself. The overall benefit to Ireland is always very positive from such trade deals.

It never gets acknowledged in the debate that it has been a positive for Ireland, right across all the various trade deals that have been negotiated. We are a small country with an open economy and we sell most of what we produce and make, which creates jobs and enables companies to develop and grow. We will analyse the judgment. We will give sufficient time to all parties to do so, and we will come forward with our view then in respect of how we deal with the situation. To date, some 16 of the 27 EU member states have ratified CETA. It remains provisionally applied, as the Deputy says, since 21 September 2017. In respect of this, in the past five years, the world has not caved in. Canada is a very important export market. Some 400 Enterprise Ireland client companies are doing business in the Canadian market now. We exported approximately €4 billion worth of goods and services to Canada in 20-----

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