Results 21-40 of 7,774 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister of State introduced the analogy in terms of primary legislation. Rather than Green Papers or White Papers, we are talking about primary legislation. The language is interesting. There reference in our Standing Orders, which were, of course, agreed by the Government as the Standing Orders of the Houses of the Parliament, is not to a draft statutory instrument but, rather to a...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is the Government.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No, let us go through it. If the Government is proposing this-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No. To be very clear, the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government is not proposing legislation.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If a Department is proposing legislation in terms of a statutory instrument, then the key issue, the gap and the space where this committee was designed to sit - a space now being encroached upon by what I believe is this overreach in terms of the advice from the Attorney General - relates to the process between a proposed statutory instrument and a new statutory instrument that is law. The...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Excuse me. To be very clear, this is exactly what we are being told.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We are being told that any copy until-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ----the regulations have been made by the Minister will be subject to legal professional privilege.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Effectively, it is being stated that the version of the statutory instrument that is about to be signed by the Minister is privileged until it has already been made and becomes law. An Act becomes law and a statutory instrument is law.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: A proposed statutory instrument is the point at which we, as a committee, should be in a position to carry out parliamentary scrutiny. This is the piece that matters, namely where something as solid as a Bill is ultimately proposed by a Department. It might be stated that the Office of Parliamentary Counsel put together that draft of the Bill and that the intention was to get the relevant...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No. It is equivalent to saying-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----that if 50% of the Bills published become Acts without any parliamentary input on the text of those Bills -----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will let them in, but this is a crucial piece. It is the definition, effectively, of failing to have laws scrutinised. As an example, in the context of the corporate sustainability reporting directive, we were told there was a list of stakeholders who were regularly updated by email during that process. The parliamentary community, however, was not.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will clarify something. It was the instruction that we were to be-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: And I believe that was the instruction. I just wanted to clarify that.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I share the frustration of others. As colleagues have pointed out, some of the premise for this entire project, this giant planning Bill that is being pushed through in an unusual way without proper process and proper scrutiny, is the suggestion that it somehow represents taking action on the housing crisis. We need to remember that planning is not and has not been the cause of the housing...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It was opposed.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: With respect, this is the Seanad. It has been 21 hours in the Seanad.

Seanad: Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There are many points I wanted to make on this Bill but, given that it is very important that we get to vote against this highly problematic addition to legislation, I will keep them very brief. Others have gone through the many problems with how this is supposed to operate in great detail. These problems range from the fact that people may be sent a message on a website to the highly...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 135: In page 104, line 18, to delete “10 years” and substitute “6 years”.