Results 7,341-7,360 of 8,235 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: A written note would be very useful.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I understand there was not a report in 2023. That is why I was wondering what the plans are for the next report.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: So the 2023 report will be on the data from 2022.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It would be useful if Revenue could perhaps include information of how effective that scheme has been or whether there are loopholes or areas which we believe have worked in favour of or against the success of that scheme. Are there plans for not just a report on the scheme but an analysis of its efficacy?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will come to my other questions. Regarding bogus self-employment, there was a Supreme Court judgment last October about the misclassification of workers. Will Revenue be engaging with businesses which engage in widespread misclassification for a sustained period to ensure that there are supports for workers who were affected or indeed that adverse effects have been mitigated? For...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will just finish up. I thank Mr. Cody for those answers on the code of practice. I have a very last question. I might come back in again on the PhD workers as I believe that issue will arise again. Mr. Cody mentioned the actions that are coming following on from the October judgment. With regard to those who have been affected in the past by misclassification, many of them have already...

Seanad: Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Second Stage (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I hope to have the opportunity to engage on Committee Stage. In respect of this new fund, it is important that we learn from some of the challenges we faced with previous funds and areas of investment of the State. The record of the State has been mixed. Section 6 refers to investment policy and the focus is very explicitly on commercial aspects and seeking the optimal total financial...

Seanad: Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Second Stage (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This is me being very brief. In that context, I want to signal that I will be bringing forward some amendments. I would also genuinely appreciate it if the Minister of State could look at how we can learn from some of these other pieces and from the mistakes made or the things not foreseen by the NTMA. We have been many years waiting for the review of NAMA to tell us all the things that...

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 1: In page 9, to delete lines 15 to 19 and substitute the following: “(3) In this Act, references to environmental development and sustainability shall be construed as references to developments and actions which comply with actions under the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Sustainable Development...

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The amendment seeks to clarify the definition of "environmental development and sustainability". To be clear, the climate crisis is here already and is having a disproportionate impact on the world's most vulnerable people. At the climate action committee, we recently discussed Ireland's climate change assessment report, which was starkly clear that the climate emergency is already having...

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is true that things are moving rapidly in areas such as climate and biodiversity but the fact that they may be moving rapidly goes against the idea that we would roll back to a position before things were moving rapidly and before the problem was even understood at all; that we would roll back to the 1980s. That is what is happening here. There is a tension being created needlessly in...

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will press it.

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I support the sentiment in amendment No. 2 from Senator Clonan and I also have a number of amendments in this grouping. Amendment No. 10 seeks to insert a new object in the Bill to require that the agency support and promote parity of esteem between disciplines. Parity of esteem does matter and it has consistently been one of the concerns that have been raised. I will go through the...

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 6: In page 11, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: “(d) to support measures to bring an end to precarious work in the research sector and promote quality and sustainable employment for all researchers;”.

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This amendment seeks to insert a new object into the Bill which would require the agency "to support measures to bring an end to precarious work in the research sector and promote quality and sustainable employment for all researchers". The issue of workers' rights in higher education and the research section more broadly is one I have been raising for a long time. In 2018, I launched TASC's...

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There is almost a contradiction there. The Minister of State has spoken about the pillar impact and recognising how important the people working on the careers are in that, but then he says that the agency does not have a remit. However, the Minister of State is setting up the agency. He cannot simply say the agency does not have a remit because he is establishing it. He can give the...

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 7: In page 11, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: “(d) to promote the development of public research for the public good which addresses social and environmental needs;”.

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Amendment No. 7 seeks "to promote the development of public research for the public good which addresses social and environmental needs". There is an error in the location in which it is proposed to insert amendment No. 8. I will speak to the general point of that amendment but might not move it. Amendment No. 9 is an alternative to amendment No. 7, which also inserts a new object into the...

Seanad: Research and Innovation Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (21 May 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister of State for engaging at least and giving consideration to those amendments. With regard to amendments No. 7 and 9, some of the language is there. I had expressed concern around the way environmental development is referred to and about how I believe it is environmental development from a very narrow perspective within the Bill. Nonetheless, perhaps it would have been...