Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and welcome this Bill. As one who has been involved in court procedures I recall dealing with a company in the Minister of State’s constituency. Its first contract was made in Ireland, the matter went to arbitration and we spent 11 days arguing about whether there were one or five contracts. If there were five another two were made in another jurisdiction. It took 11 days before the arbitrator decided. I had a very difficult experience with that matter.

At European level there is already a very structured system in respect of a ruling on contracts, whether service contracts or contracts for the purchase of goods. This one involves dealing at an international level. Article 3 of the convention sets out quite clearly how the matter is to proceed:

“exclusive choice of court agreement” means an agreement concluded by two or more parties that meets the requirements of paragraph c)and designates, for the purpose of deciding disputes which have arisen or may arise in connection with a particular legal relationship, the courts of one Contracting State or one or more specific courts of one Contracting State to the exclusion of the jurisdiction of any other courts; ...

[and] ...

an exclusive choice of court agreement must be concluded or documented –i) in writing; or

ii) by any other means of communication which renders information accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference;

It is quite clear what the convention sets out and it is important that we now have such a huge volume of international trade in Ireland. Before now we mainly exported and provided services to the United Kingdom. Now we play in a global market and it is important that we have proper procedures in place to deal with the sale of goods or the supply of services.

The difficulty with the contracts I mentioned at the outset apply to any company going abroad. The initial contract might be in writing but an issue may arise about further work to be done and it is important to set it out in writing. I also had experience of dealing with a German building company that came into Ireland which entered into a contract to do work and did more than €1 million worth of work without setting out anything in writing. I recall having to collect a cheque for it on Christmas Eve for €1 million and send it back to Germany. After Christmas I asked how it had done work on a site without having anything in writing and the response was, “We were told when we came to Ireland you took everyone at their word.” That to an extent explains our banking crisis. Maybe everyone took us at our word when in many cases issues should have been set out in writing.

Article 3 sets out that it must be:

i) in writing; or

ii) by any other means of communication which renders information accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference;

It is extremely important that people recognise, if they are in another jurisdiction, the importance of making sure for the court that is to adjudicate in any dispute that it is set out in black and white in writing. It seems that business moves so fast and can change in a very short time and agreements are reached without any formal documents being exchanged. That is the importance of this convention, making sure we have recognition of what court is to deal with a dispute. This is welcome.

We are putting this into legislation, which gives jurisdiction to the Master of the High Court. I know it is presumed there is a right of appeal but there is no reference in the Bill to a right of appeal to the High Court if there is a dispute on the Master’s decision. Can that be clarified? I take it there is a right of appeal if for some reason the Master decided not to give recognition to the judgment of another jurisdiction but I am surprised there is no reference to it in this Bill. Could the Minister of State clarify that issue?There is an automatic right of appeal but it would be useful to clarify the matter. I thank the Minister of State and his Department for their work on this matter since it first arose in 2005. As it was only signed off at European level in December 2014, I welcome that it is being brought forward in a timely manner rather than rushing it through in October.