If I may I shall pass on from what I would regard as a most distasteful position that this Oireachtas has found itself in. One can imagine the howls of outrage if a rump of Nazi Germany was claiming to represent Germany in any institution — or a rump of exiled Nazis. We have a similar position here. It is a depicable reflection, not on our Government who have to deal with realities but on the nature of international politics.
I would like to ask the Minister a few more questions about the provisions of the Schedule. It is only fair to go through it in some sort of serial order. I am particularly concerned about the covered risks and the provision on expropriation and similar measures which states:
any legislative action or administrative action or omission attributable to the host government which has the effect of depriving the holder of a guarantee of his ownership or control of, or a substantial benefit from, his investment, with the exception of nondiscriminatory measures of general application which governments normally take..."
I am a bit perturbed by this. It effectively says that we are telling international investors that if, for instance, they chose to invest in the natural resources of a developing country under, perhaps, unfair conditions, given the nature of a régime such as we have for example in Chile at present.