Results 41-60 of 7,444 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: To go back to the European legal basis, I might go to Mr. Ryan first and then ask the Commission its understanding of the legal basis.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: What is the legal basis?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I might ask the Commission-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Article 42.2 of TFEU explicitly states that the Union budget cannot be deployed for operations, which have military or defence implications.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Mr. Ryan has explicitly stated that the purpose has been to supply arms to a conflict.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Effectively, if we have an increase in the arms that are being manufactured, that has military and defence implications, surely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It has military or defence implications in which case it is in breach of Article 41.2. It is not the case that anything which is an industry can get money. I would like if the representatives of the Commission could elaborate on how this measure is compatible with Article 41.2, if it is coming from the general budget?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is not a matter of picking a single article and saying we are manufacturing under this. It must be tested against the legality in terms of other articles. Is Ms Filipkova suggesting that the manufacture of explosives, shells and missiles does not have military or defence implications?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am not reassured. Perhaps Ms Filipkova might talk about the Council. She mentioned that the European Peace Facility is off-budget precisely because it has military or defence implications and yet she is suggesting that these measures, in terms of manufactured weapons, do not have military or defence implications, or somehow can be dealt with separately. In relation to the Council...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We have read part of Article 42.2 but we have not read the full piece and I think it is important here. It is very clear that there should be no expenditure arising from operations having military or defence implications expect in cases where the Council acting unanimously decides otherwise. For a decision that had military or defence implications, which clearly the manufacture of weaponry...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is very clear, to be honest, that in regard to capacity to produce and production, effectively one is supporting production in that context. This is a legally questionable interpretation and I think it is one that should perhaps be revisited in that context. As the witness said, the Commission is supporting these companies in their capacity to manufacture weapons. It is not like...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have confirmation, although I understand I am not allowed to name individual companies, that one of the companies which is benefitting from the scheme is indeed exporting tank shells to Israel. That is from reports in Der Spiegel. We know that we are effectively routing an estimated €12 million of Irish money and claiming that it is an industrial measure, while explicitly kind of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I understand that some of the moneys have been a redirection of moneys. I think the witness mentioned €171 million has been redirected from another area of defence, the EDI. Where has the remaining, over €300 million, been redirected from, or is it new money?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Will the €300 million come from the general budget? All of the money will come from the general budget, as I understand it. Is that the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Just on cluster munitions, I have asked Mr. Ryan about it. It is disappointing that there does not seem to be commentary on Irish law. Is it the practice to check for compatibility with our national law in respect of budgetary decisions that have, was stated, military or defence implications? I know Mr. Fitzgerald was in the room and maybe he would like to comment. As I understand it, he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: How is it coherent? Again-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: With great respect to Mr. Ryan, it is appropriate because the question is on how it is coherent for us to be engaged in supporting the manufacturing of weaponry and arms, given that there is an explicit prohibition in the cluster munitions legislation on the State investing in the manufacture of explosives and munitions, and that we have a status of neutrality which Mr. Ryan would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: With the defence fund and others, there is a separate decision-making, as I outlined. There is a process whereby one can decide to have a separate------

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No, but within the European Defence Fund, it is not simply the same because this process was decided by QMV, as I understand it, in quite a hurry. Going back to the Commission, there is just one other point. The Act, as I understand it, referred to the urgency and the exceptional circumstances of the Ukraine war. Again, that does not seem to be an industrial measure. That is clearly a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Proposals (22 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: One of the other speakers from the Commission wishes to come in.