The government’s attempt to ratify the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) without pre-legislative scrutiny has been described as a deeply cynical move by Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson.<\/p>\n
Senator Stephenson said:<\/p>\n
\u201cT\u00e1naiste Simon Harris has received Cabinet approval for the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025, which will enable the ratification of the EU-Canada agreement. Once enacted, this will allow the State to progress plans to ratify CETA and other international agreements.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrevious attempts by Fianna F\u00e1il\/Fine Gael-led governments to ram through CETA were stopped in their tracks by political opposition and a successful legal challenge in the Supreme Court in 2022, which found elements of the agreement to be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving done nothing for three years, the government is now trying to use the cover of tariff wars to claim that ratification of CETA is urgent. However, this argument does not stand up to scrutiny as the trade aspect of this deal has been in force since 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat remains to be ratified is the establishment of a highly controversial Investor Court System (ICS), which will allow large corporations to leapfrog domestic and EU courts and take cases against governments to tribunals when policy decisions impact their bottom line.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite government claims that its Bill contains safeguards to address concerns identified in the Supreme Court judgements, the language is unclear and has been difficult to verify in the absence of pre-legislative scrutiny.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remain strenuously opposed to the establishment of an Investor Court System, which could have serious financial consequences for Ireland and have a chilling effect on public policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government\u2019s latest attempt to railroad the ratification of CETA through the Oireachtas should be seen for the deeply cynical move that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
November 17, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government’s attempt to ratify the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) without pre-legislative scrutiny has been described as a deeply cynical move by Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson. Senator Stephenson said: \u201cT\u00e1naiste Simon Harris has received Cabinet approval for the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025, which will enable the ratification of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[736,408,641,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu","category-foreign-affairs","category-patricia-stephenson","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n