Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Higgins for bringing this motion before the House. No matter how we look at CETA, it is clear the agreement undermines the public good and threatens public services, everything from health and energy to social services and transport. We should not now or ever see the provision of essential public services as a potential market, whereby corporations can make a profit. Trade agreements such as these set their sights on public services as an opportunity to take advantage of Irish citizens in order for corporations to make money, even in an era of record corporate profits. CETA, however, goes even further as it also serves to restrict governments from the creation and expansion of public services and the restoration and proper regulation of those services.

Have our recent and disastrous experiences of poor regulatory practice, particularly of the financial sector, taught us so little that we will blindly sign up to an agreement that encroaches so significantly on our regulatory practices? Ultimately, what CETA does is challenge a government's ability to make decisions on how best to provide for the public. It allows for corporate interests to be represented like never before in those decision-making processes.

CETA is objectively the most far-reaching and wide-ranging trade agreement that Ireland has ever been party to. Moreover, public services are affected in a number of ways by CETA through obligations imposed on investments, cross-border trade and procurement, as well as market access. CETA does not ensure that the parties committed to the agreement will remain free to provide and regulate services, for example, the services we provide to Irish citizens. Essentially, what we will experience is a reduction in public policy space and in the ability of a state to control what happens within its own borders. In return for this huge reduction in our internal sovereignty, we receive the dubious reward of increased market access for foreign corporations and the protection of the rights of foreign service providers, even if that access and those protections are to the detriment of our domestic interests.

Under CETA, only a few public services will be excluded from the liberalisation of the market. As it stands, investment protections will restrict the capacity of governments to expand public services, or even to create new public services, due to the potential of these decisions to impact on commercial interests. There are no two ways about it: CETA clashes with elected governments and the ratchet clause constrains governments' ability to restore privatised services to the public. If a government was to attempt to pull services back into the public arena once foreign investors are established, then compensation claims are imminent. This is, in fact, the bolting in and copper-fastening of privatisation. The provision of services at a local and national level and government scope to regulate those services is in jeopardy. CETA threatens the public good and the regulation that serves the public interest.

This is not business as usual, as some would have us believe. Previous trade agreements listed the services and sectors they would agree to cover, which is called a positive list. What we are seeing with CETA is a system using a negative list. This means that services and sectors pertaining to investment or trade are automatically covered unless otherwise set out. This is a feather in the cap of corporate lobbyists and potentially opens the Irish State to a dizzying array of legal attacks from hundreds of corporations across every major industry.

CETA is not a good deal for Europe. I call on all Members to support the motion until Ireland completely understands the far-reaching effects of this trade agreement and what the true scope of provisional application entails. The Government has admitted we are not fully aware of the scope of what we will agree on in a few short weeks. We are signing this agreement blind. Not only is it irresponsible, it is potentially dangerous.It is impossible for any party and any politician to claim to be a champion of strong public services yet support the provisional application of CETA. They are completely incompatible. Our public services are threatened by CETA and it is incumbent on us all to respond to and neutralise the threat. I ask all of the Senators to support the motion and call on the Government to not agree to the provisional application of CETA.