Results 7,541-7,560 of 8,235 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will finish by saying I do not think it is uneconomical to simply have compliance with basic ethical standards. I do not think it is a niche product or a niche thing to say there would be investments that do not invest in areas such as arms or in occupied territories.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is not niche. It should be standard. Amendment No. 19 is the one that suggests the chief executive, when he or she appears before the public accounts committee, would be required to give evidence on the investment strategy. As pointed out, that was the expectation that members of the public accounts committee probably had, and it was reflected in the Senator on the other side when...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 20: In page 32, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following: “(d) specify the manner in which the objectives, intended outputs and related strategies of the Authority have been subject to gender and equality proofing,”. Amendment No. 20 seeks to amend section 37(4) to provide that the board's statement of strategy would specify the manner in...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 22: In page 35, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “(b) statistical data in relation to participation in and financial benefit from the automatic enrolment retirement savings system disaggregated on the basis of— (i) gender; (ii) class; (iii) disability; (iv) ethnicity; (v) marital status; (vi) family status and; (vii) history of...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 23: In page 35, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “(b) statistical data in relation to participation in and financial benefit from the automatic enrolment retirement savings system disaggregated on the basis of— (i) gender; (ii) disability; (iii) ethnicity; (iv) marital status; (v) family status and; (vi) history of engagement in the...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 24: In page 35, line 7, before “statistical” to insert “disaggregated”.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No 25: In page 35, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “(e) the gender and equality impact of the automatic enrolment retirement savings system;”.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 26: In page 35, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “(e) the ability of the Authority to ensure that investments are made on an ethical basis in line with domestic and international law;”.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 27: In page 35, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “(e) the ability of the Authority to ensure that investments are made on an ethical basis in line with best practice and domestic and international law;”.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This amendment addresses the same issue that I seek to amend in a number of my amendments as well. Senator Sherlock was highlighting the issue of the age threshold of 23 for starting payments and the income threshold of €20,000 in terms of the making of payments. This will see low-income workers and those who are without a university education, in effect, excluded from the scheme....

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I was speaking to the issues raised in amendment No. 34 from Senator Sherlock. The issues are similar to those addressed in amendments Nos. 37 and 38 but they are not grouped. I checked to see if they were grouped but apparently they are not.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 37: In page 44, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “(c) the gender and equality implications of the prescribed age and prescribed amount;”. Amendment No. 37 seeks to amend section 56(2) by inserting a new paragraph providing that when making decisions on the prescribed age and earning limits under the scheme the Minister would have...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 38: In page 45, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “(3) In making determinations under subsection (1), the Minister shall have due regard, to the need to ensure that persons availing of carers allowance, the one-parent family payment, disability allowance or the working family payment have equitable access to secure pensions.”.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank our witnesses. I will pick up where Deputy Conway-Walsh left off. I feel it was almost a case of two different things being asked for and given. Much of the discussion was around value for money and the review of each project. When how these projects were assessed was being described, it was almost like they were being described as being assessed within themselves. The questions...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Two issues arise with that. One relates to the area of housing leasing. We do not get the property back at the end of the lease. We have been spending on housing leasing and the property is effectively owned by the original owner at the end of the lease, even though they have their mortgage paid by the State. In those contexts, we do not have that return, so it is hard to see how that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Mr. Dorgan mentioned ten years ago, but in the past five years the fiscal context has been completely different. Are the cost-benefit analyses publicly available that look at direct Exchequer versus public private partnerships on any of those 29 projects? Are they published? Will the witnesses confirm we are in a different fiscal context and have been for a few years now?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Either way, it should be part of the comparative analysis.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a very good question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Did the IMF not suggest that when it suggested direct expenditure from the Exchequer? Would that model not fit that kind of IMF suggestion? I apologise to Deputy Boyd Barrett for cutting in.