Results 1,641-1,660 of 8,196 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Data Sharing and Governance Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 76:In page 42, to delete line 23 and substitute the following:"(a) the time periods referred to in:(i) section 55(1)(d)(iii)setting a minimum of two weeks; (ii) section 56, and". The amendment intends to ensure there will be a time period. I acknowledge that the Minister of State has in amendment No. 77 met that. Of course, I pushed the boat out with a further...

Seanad: Data Sharing and Governance Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 80:In page 43, to delete lines 13 to 16.

Seanad: Data Sharing and Governance Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This is the most fundamental amendment. There was confusion in the Bills Office that three amendments due to be made in this section, the third of which would also include lines 13 and 14. These are the grounds. This is probably the final substantive concern that we have. It relates to the fact that the purposes under which the Minister may prescribe rules and promises, procedures and...

Seanad: Data Sharing and Governance Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is the substantive concern and it is not the intention of the Bill. In light of that, and in faith that the Minister of State will remove the two lines, I will not press the amendments.

Seanad: Data Sharing and Governance Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister of State and his officials for their engagement with me between the Stages of the Bill. We made significant progress together and the Bill is strengthened by that. I look forward to watching the further debates from a distance. I am sure that it will move very quickly when it comes back with the amendments that have been committed to on Committee Stage in the Dáil.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank Mr. Nicholson. We first talked about this about four or five years ago in a completely different forum. I recognise it is one of the policy areas into which a lot of very considered thought has gone. There are a lot of really strong and positive aspects to some of the proposals. I also quite like the straw man proposal as one part of that consultation. Compared with the total...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is fundamentally different from the State system in that a set amount is not provided to reflect what has been saved .

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The incentives are for people who do not and will not save. The incentives relate to matching from the employer and from the State. It would be appropriate to have at least one of the four options be a low or no risk option. I am not simply talking about the State underpinning it but also about those who are seeking what will be a contract for perhaps 100,000, 200,000 or 300,000 people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: One does not suffer tax relief, though. Tax relief is not income. It is a public subsidy. It is a balancing of the goods. It is simply a matter of saying that this is public expenditure and that they will still have whatever they put in so far. They benefit from tax relief on a yearly basis so there is nothing that they have not benefitted from. There is a matter of deciding if we spend...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: They intersect.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is very positive that people can make voluntary contributions to the contributory pension but it is currently quite difficult to do so. I have often pushed for it to be made easier to make voluntary contributions to the contributory pension. Those on particularly low incomes may be concerned that the scheme may affect their eligibility for the non-contributory pension. I recognise the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The larger representative organisations have been quite clear in that regard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I also asked about community and voluntary sector employers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System: Discussion (11 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The individualisation of means testing could be one way to tackle that issue such that if one person in a household engages in the scheme it does not jeopardise another member of the household who is hoping to avail of the non-contributory pension. That area may need to be considered.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Semi-State Pensions: Discussion (25 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank everyone who presented. This is an issue, as the Chairman has said, on which the committee has been pressing. We have raised the matter in private session and corresponded on it consistently over the past two years. I proposed amendments to the Social Welfare Bill in December 2016. These were not on the semi-State companies but on defined benefit schemes and one of the newspaper...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Semi-State Pensions: Discussion (25 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I refer to the people who were prohibited from getting that safety net below the first year. However, those who were on high incomes have the private pension tax relief and those schemes. That is where the very high earners in any organisation are very much being subsidised in terms of our private pension tax relief system, which we have discussed previously, whereas the guarantee most...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Semi-State Pensions: Discussion (25 Oct 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The fundamental question of representation is one we definitely need to pursue because it is vital. The witnesses have represented their colleagues and former colleagues so very well today and they should be afforded the opportunity in every other forum.

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Ms Deirdre Hargey, Lord Mayor of Belfast (8 Nov 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome Ms Hargey and congratulate her on her powerful, historic address. My colleague from the Civil Engagement Group, of which I am a leader, spoke very clearly about the vote taken on the Good Friday Agreement being a choice made not simply for peace and political solutions but for community engagement and co-operation, rights, and a vision of society at the time. I will perhaps begin...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (8 Nov 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I share the shock of my colleagues that this issue is not being monitored. It is completely unacceptable, especially if it was not monitored previously and the Department's title was then changed to include employment affairs in respect of which this is a key piece of work. It means the Department does not even have a baseline to move from....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (8 Nov 2018)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have four specific questions.