Results 341-360 of 8,196 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Equal Status (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Discussion (7 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the committee for having me and all the presenters for their presentations, which I really enjoyed. I am very lucky to be able to sit in on the committee meeting today. I have a couple of points of observation that I think might be useful as well as a couple of questions. Mr. Irwin mentioned that, in his opinion, religion was a lower concern compared to, say, location and quality...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Equal Status (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Discussion (7 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: May I ask a brief follow-up question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Equal Status (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Discussion (7 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. As Ms McCabe has described, a number of Catholic schools have a wide degree of diversity. It is interesting that we are hearing that the baptism barrier does not seem to be a necessary element in preserving the ethos of the school. I am hearing that in many cases it has not proved to be necessary because schools have maintained their Catholic...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Equal Status (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Discussion (7 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Do we have figures to show that is happening?

Seanad: Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill 2017: Second Stage (8 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If there is to be a further speaking slot, I will use all of my time. Otherwise, I will share it.

Seanad: Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill 2017: Second Stage (8 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister for spending time with us in the House again. This is good and constructive legislation that has been well drafted by Ms Sinead Mercer with the support of Mr. Ed Davitt and others. It offers concrete and real proposals. Some speakers have focused on the abstract, pulling back again to the housing crisis and raising other issues, but we are here to debate the proposals...

Seanad: Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill 2017: Second Stage (8 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Apologies.

Seanad: Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill 2017: Second Stage (8 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will not speak to Part 4 in which I think the proposal made is constructive. While I agree with Focus Ireland, I recognise that it is doing work that is difference from that mentioned in the rest of the Bill. If the Bill reaches Committee Stage, Members will have an opportunity to amend or vote against various sections. We heard about the constitutional constraints on property. Let me...

Seanad: Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill 2017: Second Stage (8 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will take one minute of my colleague's time, as agreed.

Seanad: Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill 2017: Second Stage (8 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If the conservative interpretations of the Constitution are to block us constantly in making good policy and if they are correct, we have a problem with the Constitution which we need to address because a balance is not being achieved between property rights and the common good. If we are erring on the side of property rights and neglecting to see the balance achieved in the Constitution,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank Dr. Sweeney. It was a really interesting presentation. I have almost a network of questions so potentially I will come back again. I found a number of key points. To pick up on what my colleague, Senator Humphreys, said in terms of decisions being made in the shorter period versus the longer period of analysis, the key thing for all of us and for everybody on the political side is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: One point which gets missed with community employment schemes is that their hours are often more flexible. The National Women's Council of Ireland found that was one of the reasons people kept going into community employment schemes rather than other activation programmes. There is also the problem that many people are being skilled up in a sector which itself is being scaled down in terms...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Some of these issues are arising from the employer engagement subgroup within the Labour Market Council. Is there any danger of perverse incentive coming towards a situation where the in-work supports that are so vital to and needed by people are calculated in? Might we be building towards having employers planning for and assuming in-work supports in their calculations on expenditure and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Dr. Sweeney's contribution has been fascinating and invaluable. He answered so many questions that there were one or two he may have missed. The Chairman asked about how, where there is an area as well as individuals, we can look to wider social support. I worked with young unemployed people in Wexford for a year and looked at the very particular challenges of another blackspot. My own...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This goes to the point I forgot to make earlier. We heard about the scheme in Tallaght, for example, during 2003-2004, Dr. Sweeney spoke about some of the things that public employment services were doing right in terms of accessing supports for everybody and we talked about area-based supports. These all pre-date the establishment of the Labour Market Council. Might there be scope to look...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Not the historic programmes of that Department.

Seanad: Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (14 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will be very brief in respect of group 1. This legislation is long overdue, but I commend that there has been some strengthening of it, especially in the area of child pornography within group 1 and also in terms of the strengthening of the offence of withholding information in offences against children and vulnerable persons. That is positive. We have had a very deep problem and have a...

Seanad: Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (14 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I spoke briefly about the last group of amendments, but since it has been referred to by many other Members, I want to raise the question of the timing and conduct of this debate. We have had a long journey with this legislation which has been debated in the public sphere for five years, with hundreds of submissions being made on it. I recognise the work of Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, Noeline...

Seanad: Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (14 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will speak very briefly because I recognise that there already three lawyers at work, engaging in detailed discussion of the potential and likely processes through the courts of these various offences. I want to highlight one point which is important from my perspective. We are on section 22 and we will move to amendment No. 4 and the question of a person in authority. While there may be...

Seanad: Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (14 Feb 2017)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am pointing to the fact we did not previously have adequate or appropriate legislation to address the particular breach of trust of a person in authority. The contractual relationship with a person in authority was referred to. There is a relationship of trust and it is a damaging thing when it is broken. It is not simply the actual violence against or abuse or exploitation of an...