Results 7,601-7,620 of 8,235 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I disagree.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Senator Ruane has outlined this issue very clearly. The answers to the questions on work experience are particularly important. This is quite a shift in general policy compared to what we have seen in the past. I was a member of the social protection committee in the previous Oireachtas. On that committee, we saw a lot of the problems with the JobPath-type solutions put forward. We saw...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is important that we be really clear that there is a shift in how things are done. The phrase “genuinely seeking work” was used. Recipients used to have to show they were genuinely seeking work and had to bring three or four letters showing they had actually applied for work. That is a reasonable bar and most people would be very happy to comply with it. I imagine that...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Minister, this-----

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have a final point. We will move to the other amendments then, but just to be clear for the record-----

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Chair. To be clear, this is not a matter of long-term unemployed people but of people in their first 26 weeks or 39 weeks of unemployment, which is less than the first year of unemployment. I am referring to the first two months, three months or five months of unemployment. It would be more appropriate if they were left with access to the voluntary support. If they move off...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We need to not talk about people and what they would like. To be clear, it is the case that people usually find employment within 12 or 14 weeks. That is why what we are asking people in those first three or four months is bizarre. At that time, they probably are trying to do their own work to find new employment or are thinking about their next options. Instead, we will create work for...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No, we are asking is it the case.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is not the case. It is clearly different because you may choose to apply for work experience or not. In this legislation, you can be sent for work experience. To say they would simply take the job presumes that a job has been advertised or offered. You may well have companies saying they will take 20 people from your register. We will take 30 people and give them all work experience...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The fundamental issue is how it is done and how people get treated. I sat on the social protection committee, which did a full review of JobPath and many of these measures. People were treated poorly and had poor quality experiences as a result. I want to highlight something else, which I will hopefully get a chance, unless this Bill is guillotine, to discuss further but the fact is that...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We oppose the section as a whole for some of the reasons outlined by my colleague but also because of some of the other very important problems with this scheme as it is designed.Some aspects of the scheme are sound, but there are fundamentally regressive aspects. The individualisation of the jobseeker's pay-related benefit payment means that many low income earners will be considerably...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will be brief. I will try to add questions that have not been touched on as much. One thing that has been mentioned is procurement versus actual remunicipalisation and returning to a public service. It seems from the IPA report that if we had direct delivery, it would solve many of the concerns around procurement. I ask the witnesses to comment on the idea of having a public service....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The possibility of a legal challenge is the block.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is fine.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is to be hoped we will still get to the two-stage approach.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I wanted to comment on a couple of issues. In the statement from CCMA we heard about the local government obligations. I note that it is a requirement to collect or arrange for the collection of household waste. There is still that multiple option provided for in the legislation from 1996. Another obligation, which does not really get mentioned but which is important in this context, is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a single sentence-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----which is just to say, the charges increase, how is the increase in charges an incentivisation where we penalise those who are effectively doing what we want in terms of reusing? Is that a problem that needs to be addressed ,because it seems to work against what we have heard in the two presentations?