Results 3,581-3,600 of 8,196 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Carbon Budgets: Engagement with the Climate Change Advisory Council (7 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank Ms Donnelly. Turning to carbon budgets, I am one of those who have a concern about the timing of the two budgets. I am a strong believer of the bird in the hand. In an area such as climate change, where there is that cumulative impact and we hit tipping points, there is no negotiation backwards. Given we cannot control what is happening elsewhere, we should front-load what we can....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Carbon Budgets: Engagement with the Climate Change Advisory Council (7 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have a question on investment because I will not be able to get in on the second round as I must leave.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Carbon Budgets: Engagement with the Climate Change Advisory Council (7 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Ms Donnelly mentioned the front-loading of investment. In areas like transport, for example, the plans do not seem to be a decade down the way. She might comment if this was something the council looked at. Given that low-interest capital financing is available with 0% loans from the European Union, should we be front-loading infrastructural investment in areas like transport to deliver...

Seanad: Covid-19 and the New Measures (Education): Statements (2 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister to the House. She will understand that there has been some frustration. A concern throughout this crisis so far has been that, in the area of education, there is a mix of very rigid measures and a lot being left to fall on the shoulders of individual boards of governance in schools. Individual boards of governance are left to figure out how they are going to implement...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UNCRPD and Considering Future Innovation and Service Provision: Discussion ^ (2 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Chair and my colleagues. Dr. Pender has answered one of my questions about what happens after the hospital and after the rehabilitation period. That is something on which I have had feedback. It is as if you get to a certain point and almost your whole job is rehabilitation and everything is focused on that. Then you are back into day-to-day life, with all of its very different...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UNCRPD and Considering Future Innovation and Service Provision: Discussion ^ (2 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If copies of some of those submissions are available, that would be very useful.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Review of EU Economic Governance Framework: Dr. Dirk Ehnts (1 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank Dr. Ehnts for his presentation. I will pick up where he left off on what he describes as missions. That is about what gets measured in the fiscal process. I gained experience of tracking the EU semester process when I was a civil society advocate and part of the Better Europe Alliance of civil society groups. What we measure is important. I had questions around fiscal rules. Dr....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Review of EU Economic Governance Framework: Dr. Dirk Ehnts (1 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: When we talk about what is measured and resources, it strikes me that, while there is infinite inflexibility in regard to how we approach the monetary aspect, there is a hard resource limit in regard to the planetary boundary limit. There is a shadow cost to carbon, that is, not in the economic sense. Sometimes I wonder whether we try to fit carbon into the economic model rather than...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Review of EU Economic Governance Framework: Dr. Dirk Ehnts (1 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: My final question for now relates to how we spend, which is an ideological point. I refer to the European Commission's policy discussion document on the fiscal rules, which was published in October. Dr. Ehnts questioned what the fiscal rules are based on. There are certain assumptions regarding the role of public investment or lack thereof. The Commission indicates public investment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Review of EU Economic Governance Framework: Dr. Dirk Ehnts (1 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I guess that the precautionary conditional credit line is a revised version that has been proposed in the European Stability Mechanism legislation in Ireland. Lots of countries just would not qualify for a precautionary conditional credit line. It is almost a safety net that would not work in that regard. I ask Dr. Ehnts to comment on the ECB's asset purchase programme. Also, I ask him...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Review of EU Economic Governance Framework: Dr. Dirk Ehnts (1 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I was moved to comment by the point about democracy. That was a crucial issue in terms of austerity and the democratic crisis that we have seen across Europe in terms of disengagement and disenfranchisement. How important is it that citizens see that they can influence economic policy and that if they vote for something that is of importance to them, as described by Dr. Ehnts, that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Review of EU Economic Governance Framework: Dr. Dirk Ehnts (1 Dec 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am happy to yield to Senator Sherlock because I know that she has looked into the area of public investment as well. On a practical level, I would like to hear Dr. Ehnts outline the timeline for a review of economic governance. There are very practical questions. I think that Dr. Ehnts and over 99 institutions, academics, NGOs and others have signed a letter that says, for example,...

Seanad: Horticultural Peat (Temporary Measures) Bill 2021: Second Stage (30 Nov 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is not compatible with EU law or with the achievement or maintenance of 1.5°C of global warming. Peatlands are the largest natural terrestrial carbon store. They store more carbon than all other vegetation types in the world combined. Damaged and drained peatlands are no longer a benefit or a carbon store, however; in fact, they become major emitters. It is estimated that between...

Seanad: Horticultural Peat (Temporary Measures) Bill 2021: Second Stage (30 Nov 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This debate is to be adjourned and will be resumed.

Seanad: National Development Plan 2021-2030: Statements (30 Nov 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will take up where Senator Sherlock left off on the question of retrofitting because it is important. I will touch on some of the other environmental and climate aspects but retrofitting is one of the key issues here. It is something we could get right but I am concerned that the mechanisms with which we are approaching it at the moment are not the right ones. That comes down to...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Homes Redress Scheme: Statements (30 Nov 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I join other Members in thanking the survivors, the Irish First Mothers group, the adoptees and the human rights activists who have driven and demanded action on this issue. We owe them thanks because they have driven us to try to become a better State. I thank them for that. We owe them the absolute best response but, unfortunately, the scheme as it is set out now is not the absolute best...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Homes Redress Scheme: Statements (30 Nov 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is not about individuals. It is about the State, the church, religious orders and the pharmaceutical companies and economic actors who took advantage of it. It was systemic and it has to be taken seriously. With all due respect to the experience of individuals in Bessborough, let us bear in mind that in the 1940s Bessborough had a mortality rate of 68% for children. That is what...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Homes Redress Scheme: Statements (30 Nov 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: These bodies have responsibility. They profited from this period, committed abuse and must be accountable if there is to be any sense that we are moving forward as a State. With respect to the Minister, meeting the religious orders is one thing but other legal measures should be looked at if necessary. Again, those who created shell companies to hide assets, not back in the 1930s, 1940s...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Nov 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I wish to mention the deplorable actions that have been taken against the Wet'suwet'en First Nation in Canada. It is disgraceful to see rightful protests against an oil line on First Nations land being brutally suppressed. I urge us to have a debate in the new year on front-line environmental defenders, who are now front-line human rights defenders, given that the UN has recognised the...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “(f) in subsection (5A)(a), by the deletion of subparagraph (ii).”.