Results 3,421-3,440 of 8,212 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister of State has acknowledged that the complexion of the situation has changed in the past six months. This has not been a normal six-month period. The complexion of how our towns and cities might work has entirely changed. I do not think it is by choice that everybody is moving home. It is also because property has become very valuable, in a speculative way, over the past few...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is not accurate.

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: They are different-----

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: Let us not try to do made-up maths because it does not help or serve anybody. We are suggesting a 33% tax on the capital gains that are made when a company makes a purchase. REITs do not have one person who is the investor, they have multiple investors. Those investors, at the end of whatever year or quarter of the functioning of the company, get the dividends of the profits. The Minister...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 9: In page 56, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: "26.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on policy options which could be taken to restrict banks from carrying forward losses against taxability of their current profits of those banks, and where banking...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: If they are not making profits, this recommendation will not affect them. It only applies to profits, so if they are making losses they have absolutely nothing to fear if this recommendation was brought in on Report Stage and if the measure was implemented right now. It would not have any effect because they are not making profits. The very nature of this measure - it was the balancing act...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: If we had had a small portion of the €2.5 billion in profits the banks made last year, I have no doubt it really would have been helpful to the Exchequer in dealing with all of those measures the Minister of State has just described. The Minister of State is clearly not going to do this in this Finance Bill but let us not wait until the third crisis, which is not far away. I would...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 10: In page 56, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “26. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on policy options which could be taken to restrict banks from carrying forward losses against taxability of their current profits of those banks, and where...

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: 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: Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation: Statements (Resumed) (26 Jan 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: As we all know, the State and the church are responsible, and must be accountable, for the mother and baby homes and county homes spoken about in this report and beyond it. I join in the rejection of any attempts to minimise that. It is simply not credible or acceptable for the commission to claim there is no evidence that women were forced to enter mother and baby homes due to the church...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I hope to ask questions later about the recovery and resilience strategy. The wage for the post of Secretary General will be €5,615 per week, at the same time that there will be €100 per week for nurses. That is very difficult to defend. What is the rationale that this figure is necessary to attract the best candidates? Is it that the best candidates will be motivated only...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We saw the HSE CEO's salary being used as a justification with respect to this salary.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am not debating the value for money or the quality of the HSE CEO. The point is that the knock-on effect is already happening in that this is partially a knock-on effect. We are told we had to raise the bar once and we may need to raise the bar again.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: In terms of that accountability, it would be interesting and certainly a challenge to see if this very heavily remunerated post does increase the accountability of the Secretary General. I am aware that there has often been frustration in exchanges between the Department of Health and the HSE on who is accountable for decisions. I hope that, given the very considerable remuneration for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am just pointing out that it is an exception that is justified. Covid was mentioned twice in the Minister's speech. I am wondering why an exception was not made in terms of bonuses, not in respect of health investment but in respect of those front-line workers who may need encouragement going to work in very difficult circumstances. I understand I am out of time. I want to contribute...