Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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40. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the status of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15837/16]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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This question is about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, negotiations. The Minister’s predecessor was one of the hawks in Europe on it. Considering recent leaks about the TTIP negotiations and the public statements in the US that show Europe should beware that the US is trying to export its failed regulatory model, does the Minister consider the Government's approach should be reconsidered and that it should be opposing TTIP instead of egging it on?

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The 13th formal round of the EU-US free trade negotiations took place from 25 April to 29 April 2016 in New York. Progress was made on the two texts on regulatory co-operation and good regulatory practices. Substantial progress was achieved on the small and medium-sized enterprise chapter and on the provisions of customs and trade facilitation.

This would simplify customs procedures and reduce fees and charges, to the benefit of Irish SMEs in particular. There was also progress in consolidating textual proposals on the sustainable development chapter, which includes labour and the environment, and on the investment chapter. Extensive discussions also took place on public procurement. Discussions covered mutual recognition agreements for professional services and significant progress was made on the consolidation of the text.

Ireland’s enterprises are particularly well placed to take up opportunities to trade more easily with the US, which will build on our already rewarding economic relationship and will also generate new opportunities to create employment and continue to grow our economy. Studies have shown that the benefits to Ireland will be proportionally greater than in the EU as a whole.

The 14th negotiating round is due to take place the week of 11-15 July 2016 in Brussels. The pivotal and overarching objective is to negotiate an ambitious, high standard agreement that responds to both EU and US interests.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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Does the Minister consider the manner in which the negotiations are being carried out is at all problematic? In particular, there is the fact we need a leak from Greenpeace to see what is in the text and the fact Members of the European Parliament have to go into a closed room with no note-taking facilities in order to see the texts that have been negotiated. That should ring alarm bells for the Minister as it rings them for people all across Europe and in America. Is the Minister concerned that the leaked documents clearly disclose that the so-called precautionary principle which exists in Europe is in the firing line of the US position? Is the Minister at all concerned that it is precisely the notion of regulatory co-operation that will undermine our right, for example, not to have GM foods, not to have hormone in our beef, not to have pathogens in our pork and not to have chlorine washed chicken? These are all things that currently exist in the US and which, if they cannot get them in the front door, they will get them in through the back door of regulatory co-operation.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. I fully recognise that TTIP, and the process it involves, is full of many complex and difficult issues. Nobody wants a bad deal and along within every country, we in Ireland have our priorities. The Copenhagen economic study has shown that the right agreement could create anything up to 10,000 jobs here. Irish companies in the US employ approximately 80,000 people. Regulatory coherence between the US and the EU is a worthy goal and it should not and will not come at the cost of lowering operational practices for food safety, which the Deputy mentioned, employment protections or environmental health standards. Environmental, food safety and labour standards will continue to be at EU level and accountable to this House.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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I again ask whether the Minister is concerned that the precautionary principle is clearly under threat in negotiations and the European side does not seem to be defending it. I make the point that regulatory coherence is often presented as some very technical thing. Regulatory coherence is precisely about whether we have GM foods - they are regulations. When it comes to mutual recognition or coherence, is the direction going to be upwards in terms of protections or downwards? It is a negotiation that is driven on both sides by big business agendas, which precisely want a bad deal from the point of view of ordinary people and a good deal for them.

Let us take the example of cosmetics. In the EU there are 1,328 prohibited substances in cosmetics; in the US there are 11. Mutual recognition of each other's regulations in regard to cosmetics will mean we can have all of those 1,300-plus substances that are deemed illegal entering into the market. The point about co-operation going forward is privileging the position of so-called experts who will be coming from big business in the writing of future regulations as opposed to it being the right of legislators to decide on regulations.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. We will not change our rules on GMO and we will not accept hormone treated beef, as the EU has made clear from the outset. The text of any deal will run to thousands of pages and it is still under negotiation. Nothing will be agreed until everything is agreed and I expect negotiations to continue for some time. Any final agreement is subject to agreement by all member states, including ourselves. It has to be approved by the democratically elected European Parliament and also by this House. The negotiating process is not complete at present.

There is a reading room in my Department. I invite every Deputy to come over and see the two lever arch files of documentation that are in the Department. Deputies received a letter of invitation yesterday. I ask them to take it up and to visit the room.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question No. 41 is in the name of Deputy Shane Cassells, who is not present. Is it agreed that his nominee takes the question? Agreed. I call Deputy Niall Collins.