Results 4,781-4,800 of 8,214 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank Senator Craughwell for putting forward these amendments which are very important. As Senator Ardagh has said, these relate to many issues and we have had significant discussions on pensions in this House. We talked about the fact that care was not recognised properly in our pension system. We had some improvement whereby care credits were being recognised as to someone's pension...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I wish to make two points. First, I concur that the Seanad Committee on Procedure and Privileges must examine the issue of the interpretation of "the people". If one interpretation has 4.5 million people behind it and the other has a few individuals, we really need to think about that and examine it. Given that these are only recommendations and that the powers are already constrained, it...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 5: In page 80, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “PART 6 REPORTS57.The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas in relation to carbon pricing and carbon levies outlining— (a) how the Government intends to apply the principle of common but differentiated...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This report which I am suggesting in this recommendation would look at the intersection of three issues of great significance to the public and to our collective future. These issues concern how we collectively take responsibility for and engage with the costs relating to climate action. I refer to taking action in the face of the existential threat posed by climate change. Globally, it is...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There are a few different issues. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, does not fall under the scope of the Minister of State's Department but I was speaking to the same kind of justice principles being applied. The Minister of State spoke about the companies that could be affected. There is a quote from 2017 from Vermilion when it took a larger share of the...

Seanad: Access to Contraception: Motion (15 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I join others in welcoming the motion. It is a good and timely motion because the issue of access to contraception and to the full range of sexual health and reproductive rights has been identified as something that was a concern in many parts of the world during the Covid-19 crisis. It is good to remind ourselves during the health crisis we have more widely in terms of Covid-19, that there...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: As the Minister of State will be aware, I have proposed amendments to address this issue. The section should either be withdrawn or the Minister should exercise his power not to commence it at the same time as the rest of the Bill. We had an extremely lengthy debate in these Houses when changes were being made in respect of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. We discussed whether it...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Potentially, the Minister of State has made the case for amending the section rather than not commencing it. He has not made the case for taxing income between March and August other than the narrative that the Government said it would do it. In my five or six years as a Senator I have heard a great deal said by Ministers, some of which has not happened, but some of which has. We are not...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: On a point of information.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: On a point of information.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: On a point of information, it is not related to-----

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There is.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: As the Cathaoirleach has pointed out-----

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Government can do this on Report Stage.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister of State made indications about a Member of the House.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is entirely disingenuous.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There is a substantial Bill before us and if the Minister of State gives an editorial and attributes statements and views to everybody across the House at great length in response to everyone, it will be a lengthy debate. It is an issue if people are attributing statements that are misrepresentations to people in the House. That is a concern. The Minister of State has just said at great...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a debate on the policy and on the law.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am entitled to come back but I would like not to have a politics in which we simply say, "You're saying this, this is what you're saying, this is what you're saying, this is what you're like." That is the politics we are hearing and it is not constructive. The Minister of State made some valid points in relation to Schedules D and E which Senators acknowledged and engaged with. Then the...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am speaking to the section and how it may or may not be changed.