Results 3,101-3,120 of 8,445 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have one supplementary question which I forgot to mention when talking about the cost of care. I used to sit on the Joint Committee on Disability Matters and it was a long battle to get that cost of disability report by Indecon published. It is being looked at now with regard to those invisible costs that get carried by people who have a disability. It might be interesting for us to get...

Seanad: Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: As the Minister of State outlined, the context of this legislation is the transposition of the EU whistleblower directive and the amendment of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. There are many positive elements within this legislation but there are also concerns. Given that we are entering the period of legislative scrutiny, I will highlight some of the concerns. I know Transparency...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I want to follow up on something. I think Senator Sherlock mentioned it. There is a little bit of a red herring at play in some of the responses we have been having in this debate with this reference to the EU regulations. Regulation (EU) 2016/127, which supplements Regulation (EU) No 609/2013, relates to the compositional and information requirements for information on infant formula and...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister seems to have indicated that on the section dealing with media codes she will consider naming breast milk substitutes, formula milk and follow-on milk which would be good. If fat, trans fats, salt and sugars are named, it would be consistent. Formula milk and breast milk substitutes clearly meet the criterion of things that have a general public health interest for children....

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister mentioned that the commission will take on board legislation. However, this is legislation. We want this to become some of the legislation the commission takes on board rather than the alcohol Act that was not designed for the online space as we have outlined, and indeed other provisions such as the EU directive which do not address this issue of online marketing. While...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It was in the very first debate.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 106: In page 51, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(c) seeks to promote or advertise practices or beliefs which seek to compromise or invalidate a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including the advertisement or promotion of conversion therapy in respect of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” .

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Votáil.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will briefly respond because this was my amendment. I appreciate and accept the bona fides of the Minister. I understand that she intends to address this issue but it would be good if the Government brought its own proposals in respect of it . It is the right of any Member of this House to bring amendments on this. There is a general strong view, shared across the House by both...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 107: In page 51, after line 39, to insert the following: “(7) For the purposes of this section, political purposes mean— (a) promotes or opposes, directly or indirectly, the interests of a political party, a political group, a member of either House of the Oireachtas or a representative in the European Parliament, or (b) presents, directly or...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 108: In page 51, after line 39, to insert the following: “(7) A broadcaster or media service provider shall also comply with any regulations and restrictions which may be set out by the Commission, including through a media service code.”.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 109: In page 52, line 4, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”. Amendment No. 109 would amend section 46N(1) by deleting the word "may" and replacing it with "shall" in connection with the commission making media service codes. This would ensure there is a legislative requirement on the commission to make codes rather than simply giving...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: These amendments are not about how the commission exercises its duties; it is a matter of whether it exercises them. The provisions we are providing would not interfere with the commission's independence with respect to how the media service codes may be made or the standards and practices for complying with relevant sections. It simply suggests that they will. The Minister described them...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 111: In page 52, line 7, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The amendment is comprehensive and I will speak to two or three of its components. I am hopeful that either the Minister will accept this amendment or will bring some of its components forward on Report Stage. The reason this amendment is important is because the section in which the amendment may be inserted is the media service code section. At the moment we have the very good values,...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister has addressed the issue of gender to some extent and indicated her intention to look to those issues. It was useful and positive that she correctly identified that gender quotas are something that can be done and there is a lot of EU legislation in respect of them. That is positive, but on the issue of reporting in regard to music in particular, again, as Senator Warfield says,...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 114: In page 52, lines 13 and 14, to delete “that in programme material audiences are protected from anything harmful or offensive, and in particular”. While, in general, there are many areas where we would like to have a more proactive preventive role, we have identified specific areas where there should be prohibitions or restrictions. In some ways,...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Whatever resolution or proposal we may come to in respect of amendments Nos. 92 at 93 might need to be reflected or echoed in this section. Those amendments relate to harmful content, whereas this amendment relates to the media code. I imagine a similar solution can be found. I appreciate what the Minister has said. I sympathise with the fact that there need to be measures in this regard,...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 115: In page 52, to delete lines 16 and 17 and substitute the following: “(i) with due sensitivity to the subject matter and the audience,”. I am concerned about how this is framed because there could be a potential mandate for a restriction on equality, rather than supporting it. At the moment, the Bill states, "With due sensitivity to the...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am concerned about what I believe is an excessive reliance on the Broadcasting Act. We need an acknowledgement that we are not dealing with the exact same thing. Simply taking the fact that a previous piece of legislation exists in terms of the 2009 Act, we should legislate for what we know to be the world and its concerns rather than simply following through on measures from a previous...