Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Before I raise an issue on the Order of Business, I add my support to Senator Sherlock's comments about the importance of people being careful with their language at the moment. We are sitting on a tinder box and we must be mindful of what we are saying.

I will raise an issue that I have raised on numerous occasions in this Chamber through Commencement matters and at committee level, namely, the Energy Charter Treaty. It seems in the past 24 hours, the European Commission is finally beginning to see the writing on the wall and see sense. It is now bringing forward a proposal to the EU Council for an EU bloc wide withdrawal from that treaty. Many people are unaware of it. It is a toxic treaty that belongs in the days of the Cold War. It allows energy companies to sue governments for loss of future profits. It has left citizens across the world on the hook for billions of euro and has a chilling effect on governments that are trying to take climate action.

Ireland ratified the treaty in the 1990s under a caretaker Government and did so unconstitutionally. The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, Supreme Court ruling backs up that position. In 2015, Italy announced it was leaving the treaty when it was sued for €250 million by the oil company Rockhopper Exploration plc for daring to ban oil exploration along its coastline to protect its tourist industry. That should have been the point at which the EU announced it would withdraw from this dinosaur treaty and Ireland should have supported that call. Instead, five years have been wasted in a futile process of trying to reform something that is not reformable. It cannot be made to comply with the Paris Agreement. This treaty cannot be modernised. I have raised it numerous times and every time the Minister, Deputy Ryan, who is a Green Party member, has prevaricated. He has dithered about whether or not Ireland would support the calls to leave. It is now the case that Italy left six years ago, and France, Poland, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands have all announced their desire to withdraw. Ireland must make its position clear. We should leave this treaty and at least begin to end the sunset clause by leaving this year.