Results 661-680 of 8,419 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Conclusion of IBRC Special Liquidation and Dissolution of NAMA Bill: Department of Finance (18 Sep 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: In the context of head 24(3), the concern is that the determination of who is acting in good faith and who is not will lie with the resolution board, the membership of which will comprise people who worked for NAMA. It is the same staff. There are two issues here. First is indemnity and the idea of indemnity being granted on a blanket basis and that it may be removed in some cases. Second...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Conclusion of IBRC Special Liquidation and Dissolution of NAMA Bill: Department of Finance (18 Sep 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Head 24(3) gives the resolution board of the NTMA the power to revoke indemnity. The head also gives the resolution board the legal power to indemnify members.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Conclusion of IBRC Special Liquidation and Dissolution of NAMA Bill: Department of Finance (18 Sep 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That may have been the case with the original legislation. However, the context here is the serious concerns we began with around the poor decision-making that seemed out of line with the obligations of NAMA under section 10 of that legislation. I refer also to the specific investigations which have found wrongdoing or which are looking at the possibility of wrongdoing in relation to the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Conclusion of IBRC Special Liquidation and Dissolution of NAMA Bill: Department of Finance (18 Sep 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I conclude by saying, whatever about talking in a vacuum, I certainly do not think we can ask the Oireachtas to legislate in a vacuum. That effectively is the request we have been given in terms of this Bill and that is something that we cannot do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Conclusion of IBRC Special Liquidation and Dissolution of NAMA Bill: Department of Finance (18 Sep 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----and "the best achievable financial return", which I think were the questions that were asked as to whether the choices were made in a way that delivered "the best achievable financial return", which does not seem to have been the case in a number of instances.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister of State introduced the analogy in terms of primary legislation. Rather than Green Papers or White Papers, we are talking about primary legislation. The language is interesting. There reference in our Standing Orders, which were, of course, agreed by the Government as the Standing Orders of the Houses of the Parliament, is not to a draft statutory instrument but, rather to a...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is the Government.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No, let us go through it. If the Government is proposing this-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No. To be very clear, the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government is not proposing legislation.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If a Department is proposing legislation in terms of a statutory instrument, then the key issue, the gap and the space where this committee was designed to sit - a space now being encroached upon by what I believe is this overreach in terms of the advice from the Attorney General - relates to the process between a proposed statutory instrument and a new statutory instrument that is law. The...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Excuse me. To be very clear, this is exactly what we are being told.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We are being told that any copy until-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ----the regulations have been made by the Minister will be subject to legal professional privilege.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Effectively, it is being stated that the version of the statutory instrument that is about to be signed by the Minister is privileged until it has already been made and becomes law. An Act becomes law and a statutory instrument is law.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: A proposed statutory instrument is the point at which we, as a committee, should be in a position to carry out parliamentary scrutiny. This is the piece that matters, namely where something as solid as a Bill is ultimately proposed by a Department. It might be stated that the Office of Parliamentary Counsel put together that draft of the Bill and that the intention was to get the relevant...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No. It is equivalent to saying-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----that if 50% of the Bills published become Acts without any parliamentary input on the text of those Bills -----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will let them in, but this is a crucial piece. It is the definition, effectively, of failing to have laws scrutinised. As an example, in the context of the corporate sustainability reporting directive, we were told there was a list of stakeholders who were regularly updated by email during that process. The parliamentary community, however, was not.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will clarify something. It was the instruction that we were to be-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: And I believe that was the instruction. I just wanted to clarify that.