Results 3,541-3,560 of 8,211 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I do not doubt that there are conversations about how this planning legislation will intersect with marine protected areas. The question is which fits into which. Will it be the case that marine protected areas will fit into a planning framework? I do not necessarily take comfort from the fact that there will be consideration of how these things overlap, because I think there needs to be...

Seanad: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 10: In page 24, after line 38, to insert the following: “(10) Subsections (2), (3), (5), (6), (7)(a)shall, with all necessary modifications, apply to an amendment made to or a revocation of a Marine Planning Policy Statement issued under this section as those subsections apply to a marine planning policy statement issued under this section.”. ...

Seanad: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: My amendment No. 13 has been grouped with amendment No. 12. I agree with everything Senator Boyhan said with the slight exception that I do not believe six weeks is adequate and I do not believe the four weeks that is currently stipulated in the Bill is adequate. Let us bear in mind that a marine planning policy statement, MPPS, as the Minister of State said, has high-level principles. It...

Seanad: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The fact, which has been very well articulated, is that the Aarhus Convention requires that there be appropriate time to the scale of the decision and, again, this is not a small environmental decision in terms of marine planning policies. That is a very substantial aspect of environmental decision-making. I believe the timeframe is disproportionately short. The Minister of State may not...

Seanad: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I do not know if I will be able to jog Senator Cummins's memory. I would say that if we are being honest, we must be honest and factual about what has delayed this process. The failure to get the process right and deliver it properly has often contributed to delays. In the area of forestry, we know the issue was that Ireland was found not to have done proper environmental impact...

Seanad: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I support the amendments. It is particularly egregious if an inequality is created through city and county managers being unable to engage on the one hand, while board members who are, in effect, employees of a Minister, represent a local area where representatives might not. It is part of a general concern with the Bill and the movement on planning, unfortunately, where local authority...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 1: ““Report on Help to Buy scheme 6. The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas on— (a) the impact of the Help to Buy scheme on prices and affordability in the housing market, and (b) potential alternative policy options which would increase housing...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister mentioned 12.6% of purchases, but if we pick another 12% figure, house prices went up by 12.4% and that is an extremely high level of inflation. He will be aware that inflation in housing is a massive outlier compared with other levels of inflation. Inflation in wages does not match this factor. While I respect that housing policy is the responsibility of the Minister for...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is important to be very clear. I am not objecting to the concept of profits existing. Nobody objects to that part of business. The question is whether the State should be factoring in profit levels, dividend levels, reasonable levels of return and profit, and unnecessarily adding profit levels into our expenditure. I have no problem with private developers that wish to build houses and...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 2: In page 14, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following: “Report on lowering of High Wealth Individual threshold 7. The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the introduction of a new threshold for High Wealth Individuals defined as persons in possession of...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am seeking a report on the introduction of the new threshold, but the new threshold has been accepted in principle. I want to know about how it has been introduced.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister for indicating that he might provide me with information on that. It would be useful to see how it has panned out.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I note that if we wish to encourage the retention of hospital consultants or indeed anyone in the public service, it is in the Minister's remit to pay them more. We do not have to include a protection from tax for all those on higher incomes. If the concern is consultants, the mechanisms exist in the State's contracts with them. Among many of the concerns with regard to retention, tax has...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Of course, when we talk about a rate of tax of 46%, we are talking about that as the rate on that portion of the income above the marginal rate. That factor can sometimes be blurred. It is also worth noting that Ireland has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the European Union. There is a redistributive function through our taxation system but it is redressing extremely high...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 7: In page 23, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “Report on the application of Capital Gains Tax to REITs 19. The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on— (a) the introduction of Capital Gains Tax at a rate of 33 per cent where a REIT,...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 8: In page 25, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “Report on Diesel and Kerosene Subsidies 23.The Minister shall within 6 months of the passing of this Act publishing a report outlining the amount of fossil fuel subsidies provided by the State, including subsidies through tax relief or revenue forgone, in respect of (a) Diesel for...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The phrase "just transition" is used quite a lot. I believe in just transition. I await the just transition territorial plan, which we are due to submit to the EU, with great interest. The Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action has requested to see this plan but has not yet seen it. We all want to see just transition but we must be clear that it relates to supports for those...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: To be clear, it is not so much that I support these changes; it is just that I regard the cost of carbon as being high. I regard also that it is closer to an accurate reflection of those costs. It will be extremely hard to sustain. I am aware that climate change will have an extraordinarily negative and inequitable impact. On climate action, we should be taking every measure we can to...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Can I please make a small but an important point? There is nothing more real than our planetary boundaries. While any business sector may change, finances might change, and our entire fiscal and monetary structures may change, there is one thing that is not negotiable. When we talk about being real, the thing we need to be real about is our planetary boundaries and the impact of emissions....

Seanad: Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is about the tax rebates that are provided-----