Results 4,301-4,320 of 8,214 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I accept the point made by the Minister of State. In my earlier contributions I recognised that this area cuts across the Departments of Defence and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Department of Justice, but they do intersect. We have seen a great increase in judicial measures relating to preventing illegal entry. Much attention has been focused on the security aspect. There is a related...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will pick up on a few areas, one of which has been mentioned already. I hear that the witnesses have heard there are concerns around the personal grievance space and interpersonal piece. The concern is not just that somebody can still make a protected disclosure, but it is around how it might be interpreted. It might be useful to have a clarification on this. For example, somebody may...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The final piece was around ongoing cases and the access to compensation and communication. Part of that additional function of analysis could also be a role in promoting the contribution that has been made by whistleblowers because we do have that messaging and cultural shift. Again, I do not need detail. It is not just around the receiver. When I am talking about the interpersonal, I am...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Ms Morgan mentioned Transparency International Ireland and others, so perhaps we need to look at there being resources and funding. We do not want what we so often had in Ireland where civil society organisations end up setting the good practice and doing the work. It is important that there would be funding strands to allow people act independently, and in some cases maybe for Transparency...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I might make a quick follow-up point on that, as Senator Casey wishes to contribute. The problem with the sector-by-sector approach is that sectors may be able to say that they are being targeted disproportionately. There could be a provision relating to the volume of income. Digital and financial services companies were mentioned. They could have ten or 20 employees but turnovers of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----on that basis might be an important signal, especially given that we have had issues with companies that, if not letterbox companies, are certainly companies with very small numbers of employees in Ireland but with large volumes of their work being done here. That is just a thought. Regarding the phrase "workplace relationship" in the directive, perhaps that language more than the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: General Scheme of the Circular Economy Bill 2021: Discussion (7 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Deputy Bruton has been clear on the need for much stronger accountability. I also looked at the definition and felt that it was not strong enough. Even when we went back to the three Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle - I felt that the reduction part of that is one of the parts that is not strong enough in the proposed Bill. There is a strong focus on the recycle and the waste management....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: General Scheme of the Circular Economy Bill 2021: Discussion (7 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will follow up on that briefly. We focus a great deal on the consumer and the product - we all have images in our heads - but what about buildings? Something that is happening at EU level has to do with building regulations and changes in building practices as well as the question of embodied energy in terms of wood and construction. An issue we have seen in large-scale projects has been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Participation of People with Disabilities in Political, Cultural, Community and Public Life: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank all the witnesses. I have so many questions so I will try to bundle them. In the previous Oireachtas, I was a member of the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands. We talked about some of the gaps and problems in the social protection system in our committee's pre-budget submission. More have emerged from today's testimony. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Participation of People with Disabilities in Political, Cultural, Community and Public Life: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Will the witnesses comment on personal assistants, PAs, for those who are in congregated or residential settings so that, regardless of where they are living and how their basic needs are being met, they have that discretion? The last matter is the assistive technology passport and the idea that the assistive technology attaches to the person. At present, it is something one applies for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Participation of People with Disabilities in Political, Cultural, Community and Public Life: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If people had supplementary points that they did not get to make, they are always welcome in writing. We discuss them in private session and they feed into our work.

Seanad: Budget 2022: Statements (12 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: In discussing the budget, I will look at more than the question of what and how much we are spending. The problem is that we have missed the opportunity in this budget to spend better. The fiscal rules have been suspended for years and we are allowed to do things for the long-term benefit of the State. The balancing of the books is no longer a constraint because the fiscal rules have been...

Seanad: Budget 2022: Statements (Resumed) (13 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank Senator Lombard. People have used the phrase "missed opportunity" a lot to describe this budget. It seems like a cliché, but it is true. This was an unusual budget and we had an unusual opportunity. This was the budget in which the fiscal rules and constraints that have often blocked us from long-term thinking and investment were suspended. As Senator Ardagh said, this was...

Seanad: Budget 2022: Statements (Resumed) (13 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It was welcomed but they went on to say we need €85 million in investment.

Seanad: Budget 2022: Statements (Resumed) (13 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: An €85 million investment is particularly needed in the light of the Covid crisis, whenThe Lancethas said mental health issues and anxiety disorders are at the highest level they have ever been globally. I welcome the proposals for budgetary reform but I note gender and equality proofing of budgets was a reform we were promised six years ago. The system was being piloted over two or...

Seanad: Peat Harvesting: Statements (13 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will begin by setting out the context in terms of the facts as to where we are, namely, in a climate emergency on a planet that is in a dire situation due to the impact of emissions. Yesterday, in the budget, it was again acknowledged that the science is uncompromising and that the world is burning. In that context, peatlands are the largest natural terrestrial carbon store that we...

Seanad: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Second Stage (14 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister. It is good to have him in the House. The idea of a common response and common action in respect of financial and fiscal threat is something everybody supports. The idea of the common backstop and a stability mechanism is, of course, important but there is much to discuss in the detail. Significant mistakes have been made in the past and it is not clear how they have...

Seanad: Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021: Second Stage (14 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If those are the kinds of policies coming through on how we approach banks in this budget, how can we have confidence in how the stability mechanism will engage with banks and hold them to account in the future?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2020: Discussion (13 Oct 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I apologise for having been in the Seanad for a short time during the meeting. I would first like to get the witnesses' perspective on two concerns I have about the lobbying aspect, and then ask them whether they feel this proposed legislation will address them or could it be strengthened in that regard. My first concern arises from a scenario involving lobbying in the context of the...