Results 5,001-5,020 of 8,445 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Children (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (15 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister and I commend Senator McDowell and the Independent Group on bringing this Bill forward. It is good to see the Government supporting constructive legislation from the Opposition benches. One of the ways we can most effectively make good legislation is when we take good ideas, regardless of where they come from. As other Members said, the legislation follows the Court...

Seanad: Remote Working Strategy: Motion (15 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Like other speakers, I welcome the motion. There was much that I liked in the wording of the motion. I commend Senator Currie on her proposal because she spoke to a number of important issues. Remote working is not the same as home working. It may be about hubs. She spoke about how important this is for rural areas, but also that the idea of a 15-minute city is crucial for cities. We do...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with Chairperson Designate of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (9 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I congratulate Mr. Byrne on his appointment. I am sure we will engage with him again on the new statement of strategy for 2021 to 2025. He spoke about increased ambition. We are in a circumstance where we were looking at the recovery and resilience facilities that are coming from Europe, the State being able to take loans and a suspension of the fiscal rules that exist. In terms of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with Chairperson Designate of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (9 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Perhaps Mr. Byrne could reply in writing if he cannot address some of those questions now.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with Chairperson Designate of the ESB (9 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank Mr. O'Rourke. I want to follow up on a couple of issues that have already been flagged. A concern I would have is that it the ESB seems to be at a stage in its planning where it is chasing the regulations that might come in rather than anticipating them. I believe Senator Dooley was making a similar point, that we and the ESB need to be ahead of time. I am a little bit concerned,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I hope to ask questions later about the recovery and resilience strategy. The wage for the post of Secretary General will be €5,615 per week, at the same time that there will be €100 per week for nurses. That is very difficult to defend. What is the rationale that this figure is necessary to attract the best candidates? Is it that the best candidates will be motivated only...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We saw the HSE CEO's salary being used as a justification with respect to this salary.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am not debating the value for money or the quality of the HSE CEO. The point is that the knock-on effect is already happening in that this is partially a knock-on effect. We are told we had to raise the bar once and we may need to raise the bar again.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: In terms of that accountability, it would be interesting and certainly a challenge to see if this very heavily remunerated post does increase the accountability of the Secretary General. I am aware that there has often been frustration in exchanges between the Department of Health and the HSE on who is accountable for decisions. I hope that, given the very considerable remuneration for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am just pointing out that it is an exception that is justified. Covid was mentioned twice in the Minister's speech. I am wondering why an exception was not made in terms of bonuses, not in respect of health investment but in respect of those front-line workers who may need encouragement going to work in very difficult circumstances. I understand I am out of time. I want to contribute...

Seanad: Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation: Statements (Resumed) (26 Jan 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: As we all know, the State and the church are responsible, and must be accountable, for the mother and baby homes and county homes spoken about in this report and beyond it. I join in the rejection of any attempts to minimise that. It is simply not credible or acceptable for the commission to claim there is no evidence that women were forced to enter mother and baby homes due to the church...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank Senator Craughwell for putting forward these amendments which are very important. As Senator Ardagh has said, these relate to many issues and we have had significant discussions on pensions in this House. We talked about the fact that care was not recognised properly in our pension system. We had some improvement whereby care credits were being recognised as to someone's pension...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I wish to make two points. First, I concur that the Seanad Committee on Procedure and Privileges must examine the issue of the interpretation of "the people". If one interpretation has 4.5 million people behind it and the other has a few individuals, we really need to think about that and examine it. Given that these are only recommendations and that the powers are already constrained, it...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 5: In page 80, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “PART 6 REPORTS57.The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas in relation to carbon pricing and carbon levies outlining— (a) how the Government intends to apply the principle of common but differentiated...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This report which I am suggesting in this recommendation would look at the intersection of three issues of great significance to the public and to our collective future. These issues concern how we collectively take responsibility for and engage with the costs relating to climate action. I refer to taking action in the face of the existential threat posed by climate change. Globally, it is...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: There are a few different issues. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, does not fall under the scope of the Minister of State's Department but I was speaking to the same kind of justice principles being applied. The Minister of State spoke about the companies that could be affected. There is a quote from 2017 from Vermilion when it took a larger share of the...

Seanad: Access to Contraception: Motion (15 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I join others in welcoming the motion. It is a good and timely motion because the issue of access to contraception and to the full range of sexual health and reproductive rights has been identified as something that was a concern in many parts of the world during the Covid-19 crisis. It is good to remind ourselves during the health crisis we have more widely in terms of Covid-19, that there...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: As the Minister of State will be aware, I have proposed amendments to address this issue. The section should either be withdrawn or the Minister should exercise his power not to commence it at the same time as the rest of the Bill. We had an extremely lengthy debate in these Houses when changes were being made in respect of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. We discussed whether it...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Potentially, the Minister of State has made the case for amending the section rather than not commencing it. He has not made the case for taxing income between March and August other than the narrative that the Government said it would do it. In my five or six years as a Senator I have heard a great deal said by Ministers, some of which has not happened, but some of which has. We are not...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: On a point of information.