Results 5,181-5,200 of 8,235 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I wish to address what was done by people, such as in the example of St. Patrick’s Guild. We know it was illegal. It has already been clearly determined and identified as illegal. Under this legislation, however, a person who wishes to access their records will be describing this illegal act as being "incorrect", meaning "false or misleading". I would point out that we are putting...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I wish to speak to amendment No.17. I am conscious that we have focused on the issue of "illegal" but amendment No. 17 and some of the other Sinn Féin amendments in this group simply suggest that the word "information" would be replaced by "records" so as to remove any linguistic ambiguity. The aim is to ensure that people's medical information is considered their personal data and...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would like if the Minister would address my amendments. He spoke about the fact that substituting "illegal" for "incorrect" could be seen as narrowing, but he did not address my amendments that add the term "illegal". He mentioned that the term "illegal" would create a higher bar for access and so forth, but I do not believe that is correct in terms of my amendments where there is the...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I appreciate the Minister's bona fides in terms of his apologies and the actions of the Government. Ministers and Governments come and go and legislation stays, however, unless it is changed. I have not sought to delete the word "incorrect". I still have concerns. I am speaking not in terms of consequence or prosecution but in terms of access points again. It is that same issue of access...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am not opposing the insertion of "false" or "misleading" under "incorrect", just to be clear.

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 16: In page 11, line 31, after “incorrect” to insert “or illegal”.

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 17: In page 11, line 31, to delete “information” and substitute “records”.

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 19: In page 11, line 32, after “incorrect” to insert “or illegal”.

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 20: In page 11, line 35, after “incorrect” to insert “or illegal”.

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: My amendment, No. 55, relates to the fact that, at the moment, the section requiring the relevant body to provide information on application by a relevant person aged 18 years or over, only provides for early life information, care information and incorrect birth registration information. As we discussed with regard to the definitions, medical information is categorised separately. The...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: On amendment No. 55, what the Minister described is a previous amendment of mine, where I sought to include and name medical information within the definition of "early life information". That is not what amendment No. 55 would do. As the Minister has said, he has chosen to list medical information separately in the definitions and it is not encompassed within the definitions of either...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This suite of amendments largely relates to the question of GDPR and how it intersects with this legislation. The Minister will be aware that we have had lengthy discussions on the general data protection regulation. Some of my very first discussions on this were back in 2018 when that regulation had come into effect. There has been a very long journey of understanding the implications of...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: To follow-up on Senator Boyhan's point, it relates to some of the earlier amendments we discussed. There is a difference between vaccination and the involvement in vaccine trials. Information that a person was vaccinated, be that as part of a trial or part of a medical procedure, is not itself the same as that information in respect of a process of exploitation, effectively, that the person...

Seanad: Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021: Order for Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move: "That Committee Stage be taken now."

Seanad: Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would be very happy to engage with the Minister of State in respect of any clarification of the definition of "contracting authority". At the moment, the contracting authority is intended to be the State, regional assemblies, local authorities, bodies governed by public laws and associations formed by those bodies. Overall, €17 billion per year is spent on public procurement...

Seanad: Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will speak to section 3. Of course, we can discuss it on Report Stage but I would have concerns on this. Section 3(4) is a crucial part of the Bill, but I will be open to see what the proposals are.To be clear, section 4 deals with the contract award criteria. These are the criteria on which decisions as to how public contracts are awarded are made. Under the EU procurement directives,...

Seanad: Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I might clarify a point before the Minister of State comes back in. As I have said, section 3(4)(a) addresses the question of the price-only approach. Perhaps there are concerns regarding section 3(4)(b), which specifically relates to larger-scale projects. Some €165 billion is due to be spent on the national development plan. Section 3(4)(b) relates to large contracts that are...

Seanad: Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I appreciate the Minister acknowledging the fact that my legislation mirrors the Dutch legislation, effectively, which is running without concern or obstacle. It has been assessed as delivering 2.4 times better value from contracts. We are not balancing value for money against quality. The fact is that quality is part of value for money. That is why the price-quality ratio approach and...

Seanad: Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The last thing I meant to say is the question of who else loses out when we do not have quality. It is the public who use the goods and services.

Seanad: Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am happy to work with the Minister of State on that and I understand the intersections with the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003. I inserted that legal advice to have that in but I am happy to look at that. For me, the fundamental part of section 5, and a principle which the Minister of State supports, is that the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, which has...