Results 4,301-4,320 of 8,482 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (15 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am allowed to respond.

Seanad: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (15 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am responding to the debate. I pushed for this urgency of reflection because although we will be using State land, once the land enters the LDA's stock it will no longer be State land. Section 59 states that it will no longer be State land but land owned by the LDA, a commercial entity in which two Ministers are shareholders and they may dispose of those shares. That is the concern. By...

Seanad: Report of Independent Review Group Jadotville: Statements (15 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss this and recognise this previous engagement with this House on it. I acknowledge the very sincere engagement by colleagues from right across the House and from every party who have spoken about this issue. I speak tonight on behalf of Senator Black, who has engaged very closely with many of the families of the survivors of Jadotville. She...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Chair. I am happy to substitute for Senator Black, who would have liked to be here. The Minister talked about the antiquated building in Holles Street. The concern is that we are continuing with an antiquated approach to healthcare in that a private voluntary body would be delivering healthcare to women rather than there being national delivery of such healthcare. That is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister is disbanding the National Maternity Hospital and replacing it with a new entity.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is not. It is a new governance structure in which the National Maternity Hospital will play a part.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No. I am proposing that the new national maternity hospital would be a national maternity hospital and that it would, as it already does, pay the same commissions, deliver the same services and so forth but that the ownership and the governance would be public and nationally delivered. I have limited time so I would like the Minister to address my questions on whether services will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No, I am asking what the difference is. What is the difference from its perspective? It is not just about whether the services will be available. How will they be available? The Minister mentioned that a person can potentially get an emergency abortion, for example. However, it is not listed on the HSE list of providers for voluntary terminations, for example.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Just a couple of weeks ago St. Vincent's Healthcare Group said it could not provide integrated patient care unless it retained ownership of the site. Why is that? Why can it not provide integrated patient care with a publicly owned hospital on a publicly owned site?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: These are clearly overarching issues. That is why we need a lot of detail on exactly what it means by those matters. It is a concern if it feels that a publicly owned hospital on public land would operate in a different way in its approach to these services-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have a final question-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is very important.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I know but I will ask this question as it is crucial. In 2018, St. Vincent's Healthcare Group was valued at €661 million. The Minister told us that we pay €300 million to St. Vincent's Healthcare Group every year. Surely, we could have a compulsory purchase order, CPO, for this site. That issue of the CPO and why we are not doing it is crucial. I mention alienating the land...

Seanad: Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There have been lengthy comments. My questions and comments relate to the newly inserted section 2(1)(b). They relate to time and the fact that these provisions allow for the extension of emergency measures. It was described how we do not want to fall off a cliff edge and that there is not an indefinite pot of money. I am responding to those points raised by Government Senators. We are...

Seanad: Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am speaking to the section. I am speaking to it far more directly because I am speaking about financial emergency measures. The financial emergency measures, both at an EU level and in this section of the Bill, require us to be responsible. It is not responsible that we do not have stamp duty for investment funds if they are leasing back, which is notoriously bad value. According to the...

Seanad: Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: These are the measures. I am also going to speak about emergency measures.

Seanad: Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This relates to the extension of measures to December 2021 from March 2021 and to June 2022. I am speaking on this because the fiscal rules at European level are only waived until 2023. This section is an example of how we can use that time. There are positive things in this Bill but there are also mistakes. I urge the Government to recognise and remedy that.

Seanad: Companies (Rescue Process for Small and Micro Companies) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 1: In page 25, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “Further provision with respect to employees 558S.A rescue plan for an eligible company shall not contain provision that provides for either or both of the following— (a) a reduction in the number of employees after the date from which the rescue plan would come into effect under section...

Seanad: Companies (Rescue Process for Small and Micro Companies) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister of State. I am glad there is an employee representative in terms of the creditors group. Of course, he will be aware that many Senators have pushed for employees to be the preferred creditors in situations of company dissolution. That is really important. It may be a step further, but it is a step that may emerge in the legislation the Minister of State may bring...

Seanad: Companies (Rescue Process for Small and Micro Companies) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will be very brief. Employees and employers are not being talked about in a simplistic or polarised way. It is a matter of recognising all these elements. The Minister of State has engaged very constructively and recognised that there are issues with how we manage employees. Yes, when we look at a company we should look at the employers and the employees not in a polarised way but in a...