Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not go into detail about my colleague’s motion today because we will have an opportunity to debate it this afternoon. This practice of putting forward a last-minute amendment is very unfortunate and does not help democracy. There is an irony in the legal concerns being produced at the 11th hour in this regard. If the Government has such strong concerns about the fundamental treaties for the functioning of the European Union I expect it will also urge its Members of the European Parliament to support the proposal going before the European Parliament today that the investor court system be referred to the European Court of Justice. A serious concern has been expressed in this House about legal issues in respect of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, CETA, between Europe and Canada, the key focus of which was on investor courts and their operations.Investor courts have now been identified as potentially violating fundamental European founding documents. There have been strong calls for their reference to the European Court of Justice. If there is such a desire for consistency with treaties, I would expect that not only the Government parties, but all parties here in the House who have representatives in the European Parliament, and I know some do, will take action to ensure that investor courts, as a stand-alone element, are challenged. The investor courts have poisoned our trade policy across Europe and led to our lack of success in numerous trade agreements. We must, therefore, consider whether to proceed with them. We must proceed with a positive constructive trade policy that focuses on appropriate areas of tariff and an exchange of goods. Unfortunately, there is no hope of that because yesterday the European Parliament voted against debating this issue.