Green Party TD ‘will not vote’ for Ceta legislation

Green Party TD Nessa Hourigan has said she will not be able to vote with the Government on any proposed legislation introduced to amend the State’s judicial processes in relation to ratifying aspects of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta) between the EU and Canada.

Ms Hourigan’s comments follow last week’s Supreme Court ruling that ratification of the trade agreement would “breach the judicial sovereignty of the State” contrary to the Constitution.

Ms Hourigan who recently lost the Green Party parliamentary whip for voting with the Opposition in relation to a separate matter, said it was still her hope to be readmitted to the parliamentary party. And she added “it is the ratified policy of the Green Party to object to Ceta and that has not been overturned at any time”.

She said she saw no difficulty with her being readmitted to the parliamentary party, particularly as there was as yet no proposed legislation being put forward by Government. But she acknowledged she would not be able to vote with the Government on any legislation to facilitate a Ceta arbitration process.

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She urged the Government to pause and consider what needed to be done, claiming many EU countries had not as yet sanctioned the arbitration processes proposed by Ceta.

“We are already trading under Ceta, but it’s this arbitration part that is not in place — not just because of Ireland, but because of many countries in the EU have not voted it through” she said.

She said the Supreme Court had “upheld the idea that it currently is not constitutional to enter into an agreement like this that would effectively remove power from our judiciary” and she criticised the Government for what she described as an attempt to “sidestep” the Constitution.

Contentious issue

While Ms Hourigan did not take last week’s Ceta case to the Supreme Court, she said she supported her colleague Patrick Costello TD who took the challenge.

The issue has been contentious in the Green Party, and the outcome could raise the possibility of more party members voting against the Government on the issue.

Ms Hourigan said other countries in the EU had not ratified the arbitration process and were cautious about such treaties. “Germany this week removed itself from the Energy Charter Treaty, a huge step by them because of concerns around areas like this. So I think it’s time for the Government to have a really serious consideration.

“We’re seeing Holland being sued for reducing its coal sector, Italy being sued for billions for its reduction of oil. This is serious stuff if legislation is introduced”, she told the RTÉ radio’s This Week programme.

Calling for a referendum she said: “I think we have some other referendums coming down the track, not least the referendum on the woman’s place in the home, and that this could be added to that slate of referendums. It would be possible and I think it is of such importance, that it would be worthwhile doing that.”