The Government’s attempt to ram through the Arbitration Bill without adequate scrutiny poses a serious threat to Ireland, according to Social Democrats Foreign Affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson.
Senator Stephenson said:
“The Arbitration Bill, which the government intends to guillotine after a debate of just one hour, poses a serious threat to this country. The Bill is about one thing – signing the country up to an Investor Court System (ICS), as part of the EU’s trade deal with Canada (CETA), to help big business sue the country.
“To be clear, ICS allows large corporations to leapfrog domestic and EU courts and take cases against governments to specially created tribunals when policy decisions impact their bottom line. The government is now going to huge efforts to sign us up to this anti-democratic and dangerous process.
“We know ICS has been used by corporations to overturn or delay important public health and environmental policy measures. It also causes regulatory chill, when governments decline to introduce policy changes for fear of being sued. The government claims these kinds of actions by corporations are rare. However, according to the UN, cases like this have doubled over the past decade to 1,300.
“The Arbitration Bill only exists because the Government previous attempt to enact CETA was found by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional. They have now cobbled together this legislation, and are ramming it through the Dáil, to try to get around this.
“Last summer, pre-legislative scrutiny was waived for this Bill at the Foreign Affairs Committee, a decision I voted against. Now, the government is trying to railroad this through the Dáil, with only a completely inadequate one-hour debate to scrutinise this. This is a dangerous and short-sighted way to do business – which could have hugely negative consequences for this country.
“It’s also totally unnecessary. The trade element of Ceta, which has seen the reciprocal removal of nearly 99 per cent of tariffs between the EU and Canada, has applied since September 2017. Therefore, the State is already reaping the economic benefits of the deal.
“This raises a serious question. Why is the government going to such efforts to rush through legislation which benefits large corporations at the expense of the country?”
April 15th, 2026