Results 3,461-3,480 of 4,092 for speaker:Michael D Higgins

Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Bill 2006: Second Stage (Resumed). (23 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I welcome those changes which the Minister proposes. It is only proper that I would so. I also acknowledge some of the structural reforms which are particularly welcome. I welcome the increase in child benefit and respite care, the raising of the income threshold for one-parent family payments, and the extension of the duration of carer's...

Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Bill 2006: Second Stage (Resumed). (23 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: The Minister has departed from his market model in an extreme sense and he appears to be moving in the direction of an alternative model. I suggest the best way to approach social policy is from the model of citizenship. From a model of citizenship one will immediately find oneself moving towards the choice between the three options I specified earlier and going towards accepting the...

Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Bill 2006: Second Stage (Resumed). (23 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: I give the Minister notice that when I resume my contribution I will deal with habitual residence, and the particular position of anomalous working conditions and atypical workers and artists. The Minister has perhaps taken some of my suggestions on board.

Requests to move Adjournment of Dáil under Standing Order 31. (23 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: In accordance with the terms of Standing Order 31, I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil to discuss the following specific and important matter of public interest requiring attention, namely, the urgent need for the Dáil to debate the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and, in particular, the calling of an international conference sponsored by the United Nations so as to avoid...

Requests to move Adjournment of Dáil under Standing Order 31. (23 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: Before proceeding, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, it would be worth requesting the committee that rules our proceedings, the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, to define the term "urgency". It is reasonable to speculate on how many people must die in an imminent civil war before you would regard it as urgent. I find these rulings quite absurd.

Requests to move Adjournment of Dáil under Standing Order 31. (23 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: Perhaps the Government Whip will indicate when he intends to provide time for a full debate on this matter. We should not wait for a religious-based civil war to emerge. Nor should we wait, because the European Union is inactive, to deal substantially with the impasse that has arisen in Palestine, including the occupied areas of Gaza, east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Quite frankly, I find...

Written Answers — Middle East Peace Process: Middle East Peace Process (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: Question 235: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he intends to respond to an inquiry from Amnesty International as to the status of a recent report prepared by diplomatic missions of the EU in Ramallah and Jerusalem in regard to the present position in Israel and the occupied terrorities, including proposals for breaking the impasse in regard to peace; if the report will be published;...

Northern Ireland Issues. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: It will find it difficult.

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Is he concerned that many of the eight millennium development goals will not be reached in Africa? Perhaps the Minister of State can give me the information again in another way. While progress is made in universal primary education, the level of funds required is greater than the funds pledged. In the case of some of the millennium development...

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: Regarding the Minister of State's reference to the Higher Education Authority, is he in favour or does he have practical proposals and a timescale for the establishment of a human rights specialism? I support the interactive nature of human rights and development modules. Instead of existing staff attending existing development courses, does he favour the establishment of a human rights...

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: We should ratify the UN convention.

Foreign Conflicts. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: My reason for tabling this question is based on the conflicting messages emerging about Afghanistan. I put it to the Minister that 2005 was the bloodiest year in recent times in Afghanistan, with 1,600 people dying in conflicts of one type or another, including more than 90 US soldiers and 31 aid workers. I do not intend to be deliberately negative, but in my question I asked whether the...

Human Rights Abuses. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: Question 58: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the findings of a draft report complied by five independent experts further to an 18-month investigation by the UN Commission on Human Rights into detention conditions at Guantanamo Bay, in particular the finding that aspects of the treatment of prisoners there, including violent force feeding, must be assessed as amounting to...

Human Rights Abuses. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: I welcome the Minister's unequivocal condemnation of torture, his opposition to Guantanamo Bay and his support for the UN Secretary General's comments on the report. Does the Minister agree, however, that there is no legal basis for the Guantanamo facility, no legal protection for the detainees there and that a massive abuse of human rights is involved? As regards the suggested war against...

Human Rights Abuses. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: The adequacy of such assurances must be assessed in the context of the observation of international law by the sovereign state involved. It is the common view of those interested in international law that assurances of the type the Minister has received and accepts are not sufficient as positive compliance with the UN Convention Against Torture. We now have two positions. When the Minister...

Human Rights Abuses. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: Yes.

Human Rights Abuses. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: But what is happening in Guantanamo?

Human Rights Abuses. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: That is why the five people were not allowed in to see the detainees.

Human Rights Abuses. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: Why could he not accept it then?

Human Rights Abuses. (22 Feb 2006)

Michael D Higgins: Yes.