Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today, our MEPs will vote on an EU-Singapore trade agreement and the associated EU-Singapore investment protection agreement. I raise this issue because the House voted to express concern about the prospect of an investor court system that would allow corporations to sue states for lost future profits when new regulations are introduced by elected representatives in response to the needs of the electorate. There would be what has been termed a significant chilling effect on our ability to pursue good policy, respond politically and regulate. With these courts comes the risk that any new regulatory decision could be a hostage to fortune because a blank cheque had effectively been given to any corporation looking for lost future profits, which is a wide scope. The House debated the matter at length. It is unfortunate that problematic elements in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, are raising their head again in the EU-Singapore investment treaty. I have urged our MEPs to vote "No" because we can have a better kind of trade deal. We all want trade, but it has to work for citizens as well as corporations.

The House will hold further debates on the issue, as we cannot afford to introduce such courts, particularly in light of our climate change commitments. The idea that strengthening those commitments would come with a "hostage to fortune" cost is in conflict with our international obligations. Of particular concern is that the EU-Singapore treaty also asserts the right to overturn local government decisions. I say this on a day when Dublin City Council produced a climate change action plan for Dublin, for which I applaud it, that is more ambitious than the Government's action plan for the State. Dynamic actions are being taken on issues like climate change at local level, but these new treaties would not only lead to challenges to the State, but also to local authorities, and would have a chilling effect on them and stop them taking proactive actions.

I wish to make a specific request. I thank the Leader for arranging improved debates on climate change in recent weeks, with witnesses appearing before us. However, there is a linked, but different, crisis. Will the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment address the House on the ecological crisis? Certain areas are seeing a 60% extinction level and there are reports of a 40% decline in the number of insects, something that has been called a catastrophic collapse. At the beginning of our term in the Seanad, we debated the pollinator plan, our hedgerows, and the importance of insect life and green corridors. These issues are linked to, but distinct from, climate change. Will the Leader arrange a specific debate on this matter and will he pass my request on to the Minister?