Results 5,641-5,660 of 8,220 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would like to ask a couple of specific questions, one of which is a wider question. In 2002 we were told by the Comptroller and Auditor General that these arrangements were not ideal. Of course, the Comptroller and Auditor General's only job is effectively in respect of revenue. It is not the mechanism for vindication of rights. The scaling of this work in terms of the gig economy now...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Was it the case up to January of this year that if one registered as a courier, one would automatically be assumed to be on class S? That has obviously changed since this year. Mr. McMahon mentioned that we need legislation to ensure that inappropriate test cases are not expanded to deny individual rights, but when the Department officials spoke to us they admitted there is a gap in terms...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Comptroller and Auditor General has a different purpose. The rights of individuals is not its focus. We have discussed automated triggering of investigations if we hit a certain number of cases rather than individuals having to go the long distance, as Mr. McMahon has. When we see a number of cases coming from a certain sector, should it trigger an automated investigation into that sector?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The basis of investigations should be what is set by the court.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There should be a scaling up of the Scope tests as part of a wider investigation.

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the family of the late former Senator, Feargal Quinn, to the House, and many of his friends who are in the other Gallery and right across Ireland. I met and worked with Feargal Quinn on only one or two occasions. We worked together, along with Senator McDowell and others, in the campaign to save the Seanad in 2013, long before I thought I might ever become a Senator. As previous...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It was requested that the Bill would not be moved while the committee was due to discuss this matter.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am struck by the same issue raised by Deputy Pringle, namely, the mismatch in terms of scale of ambition. I thank Mr. Lucas and Dr. Renou-Wilson for their presentations. Dr. Renou-Wilson spoke about 16,000 ha that make up the 53 special areas of conservation that together would store 28 million tonnes of carbon. Mr. Lucas spoke about 1,800 ha being worked on in 2020 and 28,000 tonnes of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am not-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am saying that a bog-by-bog comparison is the mechanism for determining environmental criteria under the Wildlife Act. That is why it is relevant. I am not asking about something in the past but something proposed for the future.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Can I ask a specific question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I apologise but I was not getting the answers I sought.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will stick to my questions and list them three or four in a row. The mechanism now for determining which will be included in the list of 46 is a bog-by-bog comparison. Mr. Lucas mentioned restoration potential but rewetting potential and the benefits of potential rewetting were not considered. In response to my colleague, who asked about the SACs, Mr. Lucas was very clear because this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: My final question was addressed to Dr. Renou-Wilson. Can we afford steps backwards with regard to bogs? How do we ensure that we are consistently moving forward? Should we be looking to an expansion of our natural heritage network and perhaps the connectivity with that? Dr. Renou-Wilson mentioned farming. I have heard beekeeping discussed as a potential ecological restoration mechanism...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I never suggested that. I said that it is not a virtue that they will not be de-designated.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It does allow for that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Peatlands Restoration and Rehabilitation: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The regulation of turf cutting on smaller sites is something that comes under the remit of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would add to the concerns expressed earlier in regard to defined benefit schemes in respect of the semi-State companies. In 2016, we proposed an amendment to the Social Welfare Bill which would have addressed some of those anomalies. It was an opportunity to do it in a timely way and it is very regrettable that, for the last three years, we have not seen promised legislation to give...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Yes.

Seanad: Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2019)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am pressing it.