Results 201-220 of 8,419 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Business of Joint Committee (27 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I was elected in 2016. Previous to that, my background is in civil society. I worked with the National Women's Council of Ireland and the European Women’s Lobby. I come from that side of things. I have been interested in gender equality issues internationally. I also worked with Trócaire with a focus on peacebuilding and climate justice issues. Those are my work backgrounds....

Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Business of Joint Committee (27 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I congratulate the Minister of State. We took part in many debates previously in the Seanad so I am delighted to see him in this role. I will pick up on a couple of points about the financing for development event in Madrid. As has been identified, the cuts in USAID are very substantial. We are also seeing substantial cuts from our EU colleagues. These are significant cuts. I agree with...

Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Business of Joint Committee (27 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Sorry, Chair, I realise that I left out one crucial question. Will the Minister of State comment on what the timeline is after the review, of a suspension of the agreement, in terms of the time from review to suspension, if there is a report finding from the External Action Service? The Minister of State mentioned the review will be under way. This is in relation to Gaza.

Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Business of Joint Committee (27 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome that the Minister of State mentioned the meeting about financing for development and the potential for further engagement. It would be good to have further engagement if we could, maybe in writing, about the agenda and outcomes of that meeting and the G20 meeting, which I do not believe we had an opportunity to touch on but is, of course, crucial from a trade perspective and the...

Seanad: Public Procurement: Statements (22 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins to the Seanad. Public procurement is a topic I have been very passionate about for a long time, and I thank the Minister of State for the kind comments in her own speech with regard to some of the work I have been doing, and some of the very positive engagement I have had with the Office of Government Procurement, including on my quality in...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will pick up on a couple points related to time and value for money, and how they intersect. When we examined this issue in the previous finance committee, there was much discussion. One of the key issues was we were waiting for the publication of the report of the commission of investigation. One area that surprised me when Mr. Des Carville was speaking to us was that there seemed to be...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Mr. McDonagh mentioned the target was 25% by 2013. Is that correct?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is relevant in the context of policy decisions from the ECB. We can look to sales in some other areas, such as in Greece and so forth where ports were sold in a way that may be considered ill-advised now. That is relevant when we look to Ukraine, for example, which is getting substantial loans, now that it is not placed into an ill-advised position with regard to the long-term...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will come back to that. I have a couple more questions and I am conscious of time. My core question does not solely relate to the outcomes that may be on the records, but rather about the materials. What will be transferred and where will those records be stored? Before Mr. McDonagh replies, I wish to add in another issue which comes back to that question of protecting or enhancing...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am going to come to develop that point. We know leasing is poor value for money for the State. Given that a key responsibility of NAMA is to work in the interests of the State - not to work solely in the interests of NAMA but rather for those interests of the State - does Mr. McDonagh think it may have been a poor decision to allow a situation in which the State continues to lease...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The capacity of local authorities is diminished if they are paying for leasing.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If they had been sold to the local authorities-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: How many of those leases have been renewed in the past five years?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: All of these leases are for 20 years. There have been no renewals.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The value will be substantially more than it cost to purchase them, however.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If a local authority purchases now, it gets a 10% discount but it still has paid for 15 years of leasing.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Dissolution of National Asset Management Agency: Discussion (21 May 2025)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is just that more money is moving around single properties when we want to see all engines and measures. I am coming to the end of my time. One concern I had when the LDA was being set up was that we were still waiting for commissions of investigations into NAMA. Where will accountability lie with regard to future records when they are transferred? As Mr. McDonagh said, he is...