Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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29. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide an update on the Government's position on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations; how he plans to address concerns that the main goal of the partnership is to remove regulatory barriers which restrict the potential profits to be made by transnational corporations on both sides of the Atlantic; and his views that by doing so, the partnership will undermine Irish sovereignty by giving global corporations the right to sue the Irish Government should it bring in policies and or rules which these corporations may consider restrict their ability to engage in business, such as worker’s rights and wages, health and safety, food standards, genetically modified organisms, toxic chemicals, digital privacy, and new banking safeguards to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. [2467/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The purpose of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is to reduce barriers to trade and investment in order to generate jobs and growth. According to assessments made by the European Commission and other European bodies, a comprehensive TTIP could over time boost the EU's GDP by 0.5% per annum, resulting in 400,000 additional jobs across the EU. Ireland has particularly strong economic links with the US, with over 118,000 people employed in 585 US companies here. The total level of trade (imports and exports) between Ireland and the US in 2012 was €55 billion. The US is Ireland biggest merchandise export market. The most recent data from the CSO shows that Ireland’s services exports to the US increased by 40% in 2012. Notwithstanding the present high level of trade significant benefits could be derived from a comprehensive and ambitious TTIP.

My Department commissioned Copenhagen Economics to carry out a study on the potential impact of the TTIP for Ireland. This study is intended to assist in guiding the Irish position in the negotiations. The study is expected to be finalised shortly and published in early 2015.

The initial findings by Copenhagen Economics show that the benefit to Ireland would be more than double the EU average, with 1.1% added to GDP. Other preliminary findings include increased exports (2.7%), increases in real wages (1.4%) and investment (1.6%). Opportunities are expected mainly in manufacturing – pharmaceutical and chemical industry, electrical machinery and other advanced machinery; services – insurance and ICT and Agriculture and processed foods.

On 7 January, 2015, the EU Commission published a number of documents, all of which can be found at .

Included in the published documents are some of the EU’s proposals for legal text in the TTIP that have been tabled for discussion with the US. The areas covered by the texts published are competition, food safety and animal and plant health, customs issues, technical barriers to trade, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and government-to-government dispute settlement. The EU Commission also published EU position papers explaining the EU's approach in the areas of engineering, vehicles, and sustainable development.

I very much welcome this openness and transparency by the Commission.

As regards investment protection in the TTIP, the EU Commission published its report on the results of its public consultation on 13 January, 2015. The report, along with explanatory material, can be found at .

The Commission has indicated that, based on the comments received, there are a number of areas that appear to be particularly important to respondents, which represent four areas of work that should be explored further. These are: the protection of the right to regulate; the establishment and functioning of arbitral tribunals; the relationship between domestic judicial systems and Investor to State Dispute Settlement (ISDS); and the review of ISDS decisions for legal correctness through an appellate mechanism. The EU Commission has stated that, in the first quarter of 2015, it will be discussing the report with Member States and the European Parliament, and with different stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations, business, trade unions, consumer and environment organisations. The Commission has indicated that, following these consultations, it will develop specific proposals for the TTIP negotiations.

I very much welcome this approach, and I believe that it is important to take time to have open and constructive discussion following the Commission’s report that will inform the next steps.

At this stage, there are no negotiations taking place with the United States on investment protection.

As regards the other areas of policy mentioned in the Deputy’s question, the EU Commission has already said that there will be no reduction in the EU’s high standards in health and safety. The purpose of these negotiations is to recognise the realities of globalisation and make the trading landscape easier and more predictable.