Results 6,241-6,260 of 11,882 for speaker:Paul Murphy
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: The Minister stated on a couple of occasions the only way companies could sue is if they were discriminated against. He now accepts that is not the case. They would not have to be discriminated against on the basis of not being European to access the ICS and potentially win against the State.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: In the Minister's opening statement, which we do not have before us, he repeatedly stated that it would only be on the basis of discrimination but that is not the case. According to Article 8.12 of CETA: A Party shall not nationalise or expropriate a covered investment either directly, or indirectly [and indirectly basically involves any sort of regulations that interfere with the right to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: The Minister was at pains to emphasise that the chances of Ireland being successfully sued by a Canadian company are low. He is presumably aware that approximately 1,000 Canadian corporations are currently taking cases in ISDS processes against states around the world. They are very much engaged in what Joseph Stiglitz described as "litigation terrorism".
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: Yes, some of them are. For example, one Canadian mining company is suing Romania for almost $6 billion for interfering with its mining rights. Another corporation is suing Croatia for removing its illegal permits for a golf course. The Minister said that effectively, we will have protection-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: Yes, but in ISDS processes, not in regular courts. That is not where they are taking place. Presumably, the Minister will agree that the US is a state where there is rule of law and so on, which is one of the things he said would protect us. Is he aware that the Canada-based company TC Energy is suing the US Government in an ISDS process for $15 billion after the Biden Administration...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: Correct. What it is do with is an ISDS mechanism, which is what is provided for in CETA, and which is the main reason people are opposing it. To be very concrete-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: This is an expansion. Let me give a concrete case. IRES REIT is owned by a Canadian company. If we sign up to CETA, we may be in a position in a few years where we will say we need rent controls to bring rents down to an affordable level. If the Minister is still in government at that time - hopefully not - will he not say not only that rent controls are unconstitutional but that if we do...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: Exactly.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: I will finish on this question. The point is that that company could sue us, not in the Irish courts but in this special investment court system, which, as the Minister has accepted-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: -----is a parallel justice system simply set up for corporations. That would be a consequence of us signing up fully to CETA.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: Correct. So it is another avenue-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: I want to explore further what regulatory chill looks like in reality and what it will mean for people as opposed to it all being highfalutin treaties and the ICS. To take a current issue which is data centres, we may have electricity blackouts this winter. Electricity prices are going through the roof, primarily because of international factors but also because the data centres currently...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: So they could sue through the ICS.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: Correct.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: I do not know whether the Minister is being deliberately obtuse about the difference between national courts and ICS. Does he accept that there is a substantial difference in that the national courts rule on the basis of Irish and European law, which can be changed by different parliaments and governments being elected, and even the Constitution in our case, but the investment court system...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: There are plenty of bad ISDS mechanisms. There is no question about that. That is where the 1,000 Canadian corporations are taking these cases worth hundreds of billions of dollars. They have been widely criticised. There is no question that these exist but this is a new development in respect of the EU and Canada. As has been said repeatedly by the Minister and others, this will be the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: Yes, I am absolutely against ICS mechanisms.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: Rather than having parallel justice systems for corporations, they and individuals should be able to take cases, as it is possible to do now, which the Minister has stressed repeatedly, in national and European courts. We do not need a special corporate courts process.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: That Ireland is not subject to, however. The Minister said, "There is no change in that regard". Again, I bring him back to the point that he is trying to deny that there is a fundamental difference between a national court process, which anybody can access, and a parallel court process that is only accessible to investors and corporations. There is a fundamental difference, but he is very...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Sep 2021)
Paul Murphy: After he had said that he accepted that it is not all the same, he then stated, "There is no change in that regard". If we ratify CETA, Canadian corporations will be able to sue us in a private administrative tribunal, called an investor court system, that they cannot sue the State in now. That is a fundamental difference. It is the difference between IRES REIT taking a case against the...