Results 341-360 of 7,774 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (28 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is not what I meant. I referred to identifying the patters.

Seanad: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (28 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 6: In page 12, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “Report on right to unionise 3. The Minister shall, within 12 months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas outlining measures taken to ensure that workers holding both regular and seasonal permits have a right to organise and to collective bargaining in...

Seanad: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (28 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I appreciate that to monitor every permit might be onerous but in taking a cross-section, patterns can be identified. Without looking at all of the aspects, if a sample of permits within different sectors were taken, we could identify some of the patterns. Because it is a comparative exercise, we would not have to compare all the permits. If, for example, a pattern is identified by looking...

Seanad: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (28 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the membership on the oversight body. It will be an invaluable resource. I will still press the amendment but I do welcome this. The oversight body will be very useful to the Minister to ensure and monitor standards. I welcome the confirmation of the right to association and to form a union. However, Ireland still needs to strengthen its legislation in respect of the right to...

Seanad: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (28 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Protection of Private Residencies (Against Targeted Picketing) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will be very brief. Unfortunately, I was held up in the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs and did not get to move my amendments. It is fine, though, because I think it is clear there is going to be additional scrutiny in the Joint Committee on Justice and an opportunity to tease out the issues there. I wish to signal, however, that I think these issues are not simply to do with...

Seanad: Protection of Private Residencies (Against Targeted Picketing) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: These are issues I hope the Joint Committee on Justice will be able to engage with. I do not think that any of us wants to see canvassing outlawed and this might have been one of the unintended consequences in relation to approaching a residence with the intention of influencing a person. Canvassing is probably one of the greatest protections we have, indeed, against the kind of...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (23 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: First of all, I welcome the Minister of State to the committee and it is good to see her in her new role and capacity. I also thank her, in particular, for opening up and talking about the journey of decisions. I think it is an area which is outside the remit of this committee but I feel that it is very complementary to it and could be strengthened in some of its earlier parts in the...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (23 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: First, Senator O'Reilly is right on the actual fundamental reason for this. I focused on it because you get better legislation. The actual fundamental piece as well - this was clear, coming from the Future of Europe process - is the connect with the public that people see, and the decisions that affect them. They really do affect them. These are very significant. Every decision about...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (23 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----but there are going to be areas where people will have an expertise that they want to bring in. It is important that it is there because members of the public give us our mandate and they are the ones who are going to be affected by the decisions. I think the fact that they would have sight of the legislation that shapes their lives is really appropriate.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (23 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have specific questions but I do not know if this is the context-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (23 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Sure. I am just saying that we could signal, for example, the kinds of issues. We do not need an answer now perhaps, but we could signal the issues. For example, there is the equal pay for equal work. That is pending very soon. There is the question of the directive on the adequate minimum wage. Will that be done by primary or secondary legislation? These are a few of the kinds of...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (23 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have two very short points. One is that it is important we focus a lot on subsidarity. However, it is not only about subsidiarity. It is also a matter of at all stages, including when we get a communication and when there is transposition, what the best practice and best idea is for Europe. We are transposing at one level but there are also other parts in the process in terms of...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: Professor Maguire might do so via the clerk.

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: On the question of exports, and without naming any companies, we know that arms exports from Germany to Israel have increased since last year from €30 million to over €300 million. That is a tenfold increase in the number of arms being exported from Germany. I believe German companies are among those that will potentially benefit from the arms and ammunition schemes. We do not...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: With regard to the transit of weapons, which is a separate issue that we definitely do not have time to discuss today, the Civil Engagement Group is bringing our arms embargo Bill through the Seanad next week. It is explicitly on the question of the transfer of weapons and the need to look at stopping the practice of exemptions for weaponry, which we have at present, and ensure we have...