Results 2,201-2,220 of 8,768 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 4: In page 11, line 36, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”. Section 3 grants wide powers to the Minister to make regulations on any other matter referred to in this Act. It is quite substantial. Regulations on any matter was referred to and there are all kinds of things referred to in the Act. Given how wide those powers are, it is...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We will come to that. Given there is an attempt to create checks and balances and suitable scrutiny of proposed regulations in relation to certain aspects of the Bill, that seems to be undercut by this general provision under section 3, which says that the Minister can make any regulations about any aspect at all. Why do we have certain sections where the Minister makes regulations and he...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The problem is that section 3 does not say that there are certain areas in which the Minister will just make regulations. Section 3 refers to regulations in relation to any matter referred to in this Act. As the Minister of State rightly pointed out, there are different requirements and I will come to them in one of my later amendments. There are specific and different requirements in...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If that was the case it would not refer to any matter referred to in this Act, it would say certain matters, but it says "any matter". We disagree so that is fine as I can press the amendment.

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 5: In page 12, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “(5) The Minister shall, subject to subsection (7), before making regulations under subsection (1), publish a draft of the proposed regulations on a website maintained by or on behalf of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and allow a period of 30 days beginning on the day on...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: First, I make the point that we have an expectation, whenever a very wide provision is put in, of how it might be used. Expectations are effectively meaningless unless we either clarify how it will be used or we acknowledge that we have left something wide open. I do not see that it might not be used in relation to the same matters because it specifies a "matter referred to in this Act"....

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 7: In page 21, line 7, to delete “shall” where it firstly occurs and substitute “may”. These sections of the Bill are a matter of serious concern. I am surprised they have not got more attention. We are usually very careful of anything potentially seen as interfering with the separation of powers and the due course of our courts....

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The language suggested by the Law Reform Commission, as outlined by the Minister of State, is different from the language used in the Bill. General public importance is very different from exceptional public importance. Exceptional public importance is, by its nature, exceptional, so that it must be shown to be different from other issues of public importance. The interests of justice is...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 8: In page 21, lines 8 to 11, to delete all words from and including “in” in line 8 down to and including line 11 and substitute “in cases where the High Court certifies that such an appeal would constitute a risk to national security or public safety.”.

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 9. In page 21, lines 9 and 10, to delete “its decision involves a point of law of exceptional public importance and that”.

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the deletion of the words "public order", particularly as there is a very wide interpretation in that regard. The Minister of State has addressed my concern because what is proposed will be confined to the issue of national security. That is an appropriately high bar. In that context, I am happy not to press my amendment.

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 35: In page 24, line 33, after “Minister” to insert “reasonably”. This amendment again seeks to put an extra requirement on the Minister in terms of requiring a relevant provider or vendor to treat as confidential the existence of the contents of the measure, in circumstances where the Minister considers the disclosure of the measures...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I do not know if all decisions of all Ministers can claim to have implicit reasonableness in everything they do. We are moving towards a dangerous papal-infallibility-style approach if we believe that. Nonetheless, in acknowledgement of the fact that the Government has narrowed the scope in which this discretion may be applied to only issues of national security, I am not going to press the...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 38: In page 25, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “(3) A requirement for confidentiality made under subsection (1)may apply for a period of up to 36 months. (4) Following the expiry of a confidentiality period under subsection (3), a requirement for confidentiality under subsection (1)may berenewed where the Minister reasonably considers...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: With respect, the fact the Minister may revoke is not the same and, indeed, the ComReg report saying who has been sanctioned is not the same as saying what the measures are and how they are applying. Even if the Minister has access to that ComReg report, which would bluntly say who has been subject to the measures, the issue of legislative or parliamentary scrutiny is not really addressed....

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 46: In page 28, line 16, to delete “shall” where it firstly occurs and substitute “may”.

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 52: In page 29, line 37, after “Part,” to insert “including a review of any regulations made under this Part, in consultation with the Commission and the relevant committee,”. Amendment No. 52 seeks to impose a requirement on the Minister such that, when conducting a review of the part of the Bill relating to high-risk or relevant vendors,...

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 53: In page 29, after line 40, to insert the following: “(2) The report under subsection (1)shall include information on the number of confidentiality orders issued under section 26, the number of High Court cases taken under section 17, and the number of appeals denied under section 18, and shall include an assessment of any regulations made under this Part....

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 54: In page 30, line 33, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”. With amendment No. 54, we are into a different topic and a different set of issues. We are out of the area of risks to national security although we are still discussing dangers to the public, especially the risks they face in their engagements with different operators....

Seanad: Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Feb 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister of State for accepting amendment No. 60. It is important it will send a signal about the seriousness with which the customer charter should be treated. I still have concerns. I appreciate the Minister of State's point on there being a balance with regard to the discretion of ComReg. It identifies the areas. There is also the fact that, ultimately, one of the things...