Results 1-20 of 8,697 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Higher Education: Statements (21 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister to the House and look forward to engaging with him. I know he will bring a lot of thought to one of the most exciting briefs we have. I am going to go into a couple of issues. I will start with a piece the Minister knows, which is that higher education plays a crucial role in shaping not just the careers of the individuals who move through it and the economy, but...

Seanad: Statement by the Taoiseach (16 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: When the Taoiseach is addressing the Seanad, I usually take the opportunity to speak about Seanad reform. I have usually referred to Seanad reform when I speaking to taoisigh over the past eight years. I am waiting for progress on Seanad reform. On this occasion, there is a need to talk about leadership. That word gets thrown around a lot, but, sadly, what we have heard in recent months...

Seanad: Statement by the Taoiseach (16 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Taoiseach is quoted as stating: I don’t think we can mitigate for climate change ... if we get into a position where we are going to challenge every single thing, saying it is against the climate, we are going to divide society fairly fast. The Taoiseach spoke about progressiveness. He did not mention climate earlier, but I look forward to him speaking more on it. He stated...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 6: In page 7, line 27, to delete “, or is likely to cause,”. Last week, when we discussed Senator McDowell's amendment on raising the threshold in the definition of "defamatory statement" to serious harm, the Minister responded to the effect that it is more difficult to ascertain that a person has sustained serious harm than it is to ascertain that a...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Exactly. I wanted to provide a few of the examples of how the abuse of defamation cases can happen - sometimes even before a case comes to court.The threat of legal action has a chilling effect that suppresses the publication of information that may be in the public interest. Examples published by the International Press Institute in a story in 2023, entitled “Ireland: How the...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: One of the concerns I have relating to what we have heard from Senator McDowell is that the word "likely" is very amorphous. The language is still not clear. I suggest that even if the legislation used the word "probable" that would be the case. I know we are using these hypothetical examples of a large corporation suing a small corporation and that perhaps speaks to a different issue....

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I acknowledged in my opening remarks that it is an improvement on what was there. I have acknowledged that. It is clear that it narrows it into this area of financial harm. However, the language is still ambiguous and "likely to cause" can be parsed in different ways. Those who are in a large body corporate will be very willing to take multiple case examples until they get the precedent...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There is a whole question of whether the injury is done by the fact or by the fact being stated. That all has to be argued out in the courts. Truth is available as a defence but that is far down the line and some of these cases have been hanging around for years. The Minister talked about the vexatious piece and he might elaborate on how exactly he sees that playing out in way at an...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 7: In page 7, line 31, to delete “, or is likely to cause,”.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I remind members who are participating remotely to use the raised hand feature and to cancel it when they have spoken. If a vote is called in the Dáil, as we believe it may be, the committee will continue with Senators and will suspend temporarily, if necessary. Given that the vote in the Dáil is pending, I am going to take the opportunity, as a Senator, to begin the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: With absolute respect, and we very much appreciate the overview, much of this ground has been covered in the statement which has been shared with all the members. While I appreciate this detail, time is limited and we have very specific questions. We may come back to the escape clause from the Stability and Growth Pact if we have an opportunity later. The focus really is on the two COMs at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: And landmines.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I think that answers the question. We have confirmed that if that is the national policy of a country, it can choose to spend this money on cluster munitions and landmines. Of course, the key concern in the case of Ireland is the investment piece. We will be asked to collectively contribute to the guarantee. If one of these countries that chooses to invest heavily in landmines or cluster...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will come back to this in a moment because it raises significant issues for Ireland, which I am surprised have not been addressed previously. On the other question of where these weapons come from, there is a requirement that 65% of the moneys drawn down be spent on European military production. Is it being tracked as to where the predominance of that money is spent? Are there measures...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There will be a threshold of up to 35%. We should remind ourselves that we are dealing with very large amounts of money. I am looking at amounts of €3 billion and €14 billion, which are extraordinarily large. I note €16 billion will be drawn down by Hungary. I think it was mentioned earlier by one of the speakers from the Department that we have had concerns about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There are no regulations, carve-outs or caveats at the moment and no criteria attached. We know there will be a decision on implementing it but there is no conditionality to the military expenditure attached to these loans, for example, that the military equipment purchased may only be used in a certain manner. Is that the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: To go back to the question again, it is another part of the tracking. Are there measures in place around tracking the flow of weapons through third countries? We know there have been situations and we heard from the Ukrainian ambassador who attended the committee on foreign affairs this week. She spoke about the concern Ukraine had about Russia's ongoing access to weapons through third...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: To be very clear, there are not those checks and safeguards in terms of ultimate use or human rights concerns within the SAFE regulation. I might come to the other question I had asked about Hungary. Has there been consideration or is there concern due to one of the largest drawdowns of funding for military expenditure being made by a country in which there are concerns about the rule of law?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Coming back to the other point Mr. Knauer made about procurement, we have heard from the Irish Department that Ireland is engaging in the joint procurement component of SAFE. That joint procurement can also include joint procurement with non-EU countries where there is a security and defence agreement. Will Mr. Knauer confirm that? We know Ukraine is currently included and it is possible...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It has been mentioned that countries can be added. What is the process to be added in that way? Does it go through the Commission or through the Council?