Results 8,121-8,140 of 8,235 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: As I come to it-----

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Okay.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will conclude.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is fine. I join with what Senator Clonan said. We need policies that are clear and we do not need to dismantle our triple lock if Ireland is going to show leadership. That we are doing it because other countries were embarrassed sends a sign we need a triple lock and we cannot trust our Government to say "No" when it needs to say "No" and to say "Yes" in terms of the implementation of...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: EU Directives (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I hope the Minister of State will speak to us about a matter of great urgency. My Commencement matter concerns what steps Ireland is taking to ensure there is a proper process for the very alarming proposal by the European Commission for what is called the "omnibus Bill", which has been called the "bonfire of regulation", to open up the corporate sustainability due diligence directive. This...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: EU Directives (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: As the Minister of State can see, I am very concerned. I would like to know what position Ireland is taking. Ireland played a positive role in the original negotiation. What are we doing now about this alarming development?

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: EU Directives (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The alarming thing is that the proposal is to bring this back to level 1. We take a process that took years and go back to the drawing board. Those are years we do not have. We are at the end of the ten hottest years on record. It is frankly patronising to the public that the word “simplification” gets used again and again when what is being done is clearly deregulation and...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: EU Directives (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Will we reward those companies that have been acting responsibly? Will we show leadership by implementing the CSDDD during the period of time before this new version, which may be years?

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: EU Directives (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would like to know that. That is a direct question to the Minister of State. Will we be going ahead with implementation as planned and promised?

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: EU Directives (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: You have answered about simplification and not about sustainability.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: EU Directives (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Sustainability is the issue, not simplification. We need to hear about that. I understand the Minister of State has been given what he has been given but it does not answer it.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: With regard to some of the comments made earlier, the triple lock is actually one of the very important things that link us to the United Nations, which is one of the great prizes we have had in terms of building and maintaining peace on this planet. Far from undermining our capacity to say "No", I would be very worried that without the triple lock those who get so embarrassed that they are...

Seanad: Response to Storm Éowyn: Statements (26 Feb 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will pick up where the previous speaker ended on the warnings we have had from Dr. Tara Shine and others. These extreme weather events are happening more often right across the world. I have spoken about the ten warmest years on record, but right across the world we are seeing an increase in the frequency and intensity of storms, drought, the wildfires that come with drought, of mud...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 Mar 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I request that we have a debate with the Minister for the environment on a report that Ireland will face fines up to €26 billion if we fail to meet our EU climate targets. That is an extraordinary amount. It is equivalent to all of the money that we might take in corporate tax receipts for one year that we hear of. It is equivalent to the entire health budget. Those are the kinds...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Mar 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Many have spoken about how we will next week see Ministers travelling across the world for St. Patrick's Day. There has been a lot of focus on, and many have spoken about, the visit of Micheál Martin to the President of the United States. There is hope that he would speak against some of the language of raw colonialism and that he would stand up for the importance of climate action....

Seanad: International Women's Day - Women's Health: Statements (5 Mar 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There is much in the Minister's speech that I welcome, including the focus on women being heard. That has come across again and again. Where endometriosis is concerned, our services are very far behind because there is a need for a culture shift in them. There is also the question of having a voice and choice in respect of maternal health. There is huge pressure on older women to have...

Seanad: Seachtain na Gaeilge: Ráitis (6 Mar 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Fáiltím roimh an deis atá agam an Ghaeilge a phlé anseo inniu. Tá sé fíorthábhachtach go bhfuil Seachtain na Gaeilge againn. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil an Ghaeilge mar chuid lárnach dár gcultúr náisiúnta. Feicimid inár gceantar féin an stair a bhaineann lenár teanga féin agus is rud...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: International Agreements (19 Mar 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: On 6 March, Lithuania officially withdrew from the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. That is the convention that bans the production and the use of cluster munitions. It is one of particular significance to Ireland because Ireland hosted the negotiations in Croke Park in 2008 that banned these horrendous weapons and got global support for their phasing out. A total of 124 states signed...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: International Agreements (19 Mar 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Lithuania is not the only country; Poland is now considering leaving the convention as well.Frankly, the response is highly inadequate and is effectively a set of excuses. We are meant to be applauding Lithuania because rather than breaching international rules based on the rule of order, it is leaving the convention. It is like we should be saying "Well done, what a tough decision for you"...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I wish to add to some of the earlier discussion about the concern around the resumption of extraordinary bombing in Gaza, which is being layered on top of starvation, the denial of water and, in particular, a form of systemic violence which has been highlighted in a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.I refer to the systemic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of...