Sinn Féin MEP sues Government over EU-Canada trade deal law
High Court Reporters
Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan is suing the Government over a law enabling the ratification of the Canada-European Union trade deal.
The Arbitration (Amendment) Act 2026 was enacted this week after President Catherine Connolly signed it into law, allowing the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (Ceta) to be ratified.
On Friday, Judge Brian Cregan granted permission to Boylan's counsel, Eileen Barrington, instructed by FP Logue solicitors, to serve proceedings challenging the 2026 Act on the Government.
The case, which also lists Boylan’s parliamentary assistant Sárán Fogarty as a plaintiff, will return to the court next week.
Ceta was previously blocked by the Supreme Court in 2022, when then Green Party TD Patrick Costello challenged – essentially against the policy of his own government – the ratification of the agreement.
The court ruled that parts of the way the deal would work infringed the Constitution, stopping ratification in its tracks.
It said that investor-state arbitration schemes in Ceta were not compatible with the Constitution.
Such schemes − designed to settle disputes between states and investors − bypassed the role of Irish courts, which would be powerless to respond to an award granted by a Ceta tribunal, the court held.
The government says the 2026 Act addresses issues identified by the Supreme Court relating to the investor courts system.
The Act also enables ratification of other international agreements containing similar investor dispute resolution provisions, including with Chile.
The free trade elements of the Ceta agreement, which included an abolition of almost all tariffs previously in place between Canada and the EU, have been provisionally in place since 2017.
Opposition TDs have continued to voice concerns about the system of investor courts.
Boylan has previously criticised the government’s efforts to fully ratify Ceta, stating that the investor court provision leaves the State liable to being sued by big businesses.
