The government is attempting to ram through full ratification of the EU-Canada trade agreement (CETA), despite the Supreme Court finding their previous attempt to do so was unconstitutional, without any pre-legislative scrutiny, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Senator Patricia Stephenson.
Two members of the Foreign Affairs Committee – Senator Stephenson and Senator Alice Mary Higgins – have expressed alarm at the lack of pre-legislative scrutiny ahead of government plans to ratify CETA.
Senator Stephenson said:
“In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that the government’s attempt to ratify the European Union’s free trade agreement with Canada (CETA) was unconstitutional. Mr Justice Hogan stated the judgment ‘may yet be regarded as among the most important which this court has been required to hear and determine in its almost 100-year history’.
“Fast forward three years, and the government has now published legislation that it says will facilitate the ratification of CETA.
“Shamefully, given the importance of this issue – and the failed efforts of the government to ram though ratification of CETA before – government representatives on the Foreign Affairs Committee have voted against the committee doing pre-legislative scrutiny on the legislation.
“This is a disgraceful decision given the fraught legal background of this issue and the hugely controversial investor court system that ratification of CETA will usher in.
“Crucially, the free 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. So, any claims this was done to facilitate the trade element of the deal do not stand up to scrutiny.
“The fact is, ratification of this deal will lead to an investor court system being established, which allow large corporations to leapfrog domestic and EU courts and take cases against governments to tribunals when policy decisions impact their bottom line.
“The government sat back for three years and did nothing after the 2022 Supreme Court judgment and is now trying to use the cover of tariff wars to claim ratification of this deal is urgent. It is not.
“Given what is at stake – the creation of courts for corporations – the least the Irish people deserve is pre-legislative scrutiny of the government’s Bill.”
Senator Stephenson’s concerns are shared by another member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Senator Alice Mary Higgins, who has described the decision to waive pre-legislative scrutiny as “a disappointing abdication of due diligence, particularly given the strong and serious appeals for greater scrutiny from members of the public and civil society”.
The first PMB Senator Higgins brought in 2016 was a successful Seanad motion which highlighted the need to treat the trade and investor court components of CETA separately, a perspective later confirmed by the ‘Singapore’ ruling at the European Court of Justice.
Senator Higgins said:
“The massive financial and societal implications; the fact that the government has already lost one Supreme Court case on this issue; and the unclear and untested language contained in the Arbitration Bill all point to the need for careful consideration. There is simply no justification for skipping scrutiny.
“This is not about trade because the trade component of CETA has already been happening for years under provisional application with no deadlines attached. The legislation and ratification being rushed through now are solely about the introduction of deeply controversial investor arbitration, with, as the Supreme Court has highlighted, significant implications for our sovereignty.
“We are not talking about some diplomatic gesture. Ratification would have heavy consequences in terms of exposing the State to millions, or even billions, in potential claims from corporations while exercising a chilling effect on new public policy in areas like health, housing, environment and employment.”
July 28, 2025