Results 141-160 of 7,774 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 45: In page 56, line 28, to delete “not”.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is not agreed. I want to speak to the section.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Section 3 deals with the amendment of provisions of the principal Act relevant to employment contributions. Our group submitted a lengthy submission to the public consultation on a pay-related benefit scheme for jobseekers. Our submission related to the paper that was floated setting out the proposals that are now in the Bill. We highlighted that employer PRSI contributions in Ireland are...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I disagree.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Senator Ruane has outlined this issue very clearly. The answers to the questions on work experience are particularly important. This is quite a shift in general policy compared to what we have seen in the past. I was a member of the social protection committee in the previous Oireachtas. On that committee, we saw a lot of the problems with the JobPath-type solutions put forward. We saw...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is important that we be really clear that there is a shift in how things are done. The phrase “genuinely seeking work” was used. Recipients used to have to show they were genuinely seeking work and had to bring three or four letters showing they had actually applied for work. That is a reasonable bar and most people would be very happy to comply with it. I imagine that...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Minister, this-----

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have a final point. We will move to the other amendments then, but just to be clear for the record-----

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Chair. To be clear, this is not a matter of long-term unemployed people but of people in their first 26 weeks or 39 weeks of unemployment, which is less than the first year of unemployment. I am referring to the first two months, three months or five months of unemployment. It would be more appropriate if they were left with access to the voluntary support. If they move off...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We need to not talk about people and what they would like. To be clear, it is the case that people usually find employment within 12 or 14 weeks. That is why what we are asking people in those first three or four months is bizarre. At that time, they probably are trying to do their own work to find new employment or are thinking about their next options. Instead, we will create work for...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No, we are asking is it the case.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is not the case. It is clearly different because you may choose to apply for work experience or not. In this legislation, you can be sent for work experience. To say they would simply take the job presumes that a job has been advertised or offered. You may well have companies saying they will take 20 people from your register. We will take 30 people and give them all work experience...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The fundamental issue is how it is done and how people get treated. I sat on the social protection committee, which did a full review of JobPath and many of these measures. People were treated poorly and had poor quality experiences as a result. I want to highlight something else, which I will hopefully get a chance, unless this Bill is guillotine, to discuss further but the fact is that...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We oppose the section as a whole for some of the reasons outlined by my colleague but also because of some of the other very important problems with this scheme as it is designed.Some aspects of the scheme are sound, but there are fundamentally regressive aspects. The individualisation of the jobseeker's pay-related benefit payment means that many low income earners will be considerably...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a pity we are looking at a possible legal challenge. That may be a warning against privatising other areas. Will Mr. Kane comment on illegal dumping? It might have been addressed already.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will be brief, and I am happy to get something in writing. I am reviewing and looking at the IPA report and the idea that there is a legal issue. I am not convinced there is an intractable legal issue. We look at the idea of this as a service that could qualify for public delivery in terms of public procurement. Lots of businesses in Ireland no longer exist. Fur farming was one of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am asking whether people have something in writing. Even just a comment or two would be useful.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Mr. Kane has addressed the issue, but perhaps others have not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a two-stage approach.