Results 8,741-8,760 of 8,768 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Competition (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (6 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I echo colleagues in terms of the importance of recognising that competition law cannot be used to undermine workers' rights, our obligations under the ILO, and, as Senator Bacik ably outlined, the ECJ ruling. The ECJ has a wide definition of what might not be considered to be genuine self-employment where workers are under the direction of the employer as regards freedom to choose to time,...

Seanad: Delivering Sustainable Full Employment: Statements (Resumed) (30 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The 30 seconds was meant to be one minute, so I will only need 30 seconds of the remaining time available to our group.

Seanad: Delivering Sustainable Full Employment: Statements (Resumed) (30 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Would it be possible? It literally is just one minute and it is a question.

Seanad: Delivering Sustainable Full Employment: Statements (Resumed) (30 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Okay.

Seanad: Delivering Sustainable Full Employment: Statements (Resumed) (30 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Senator.

Seanad: Delivering Sustainable Full Employment: Statements (Resumed) (30 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am very grateful to Senator Burke and thank the Minister of State for joining us. I will be brief. There are three issues I wish to highlight and I would really appreciate the thoughts of the Minister of State and I would love to engage further with him on them. There are many tens of thousands of qualified adults in Ireland, predominantly women, who do not feature on the live register...

Seanad: Delivering Sustainable Full Employment: Statements (Resumed) (30 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I lost my line but I will just say that, in terms of the Low Pay Commission, I welcome and will be scrutinising the commitment and looking to the commission to address the gender pay gap and in-work poverty. I remind the Minister of State that the IMF, in research over 30 years in 170 countries, has shown that GDP rises when the income of the bottom 20% in society is increased. This is not...

Seanad: Delivering Sustainable Full Employment: Statements (Resumed) (30 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would ask that the minimum wage be included in procurement rules also.

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would like to note that the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has published its annual report and laid it before the Houses of the Oireachtas. It highlights issues we have discussed, such as the importance of strengthening equality and human rights in the post-Brexit context, the importance of addressing the scandal that is direct provision, something we will debate today and I...

Seanad: Immigration (Reform) (Regularisation of Residency Status) Bill 2016: Second Stage (29 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and Senator Norris for tabling this important Bill. When I returned here from being an emigrant in America in 2004, it was to a context in which racism was rising. We had seen the introduction of the direct provision system as a very negative response to what was in the global sphere a negligible increase in the number of refugees and...

Seanad: Immigration (Reform) (Regularisation of Residency Status) Bill 2016: Second Stage (29 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I also recognise that the depression rate among people within the asylum system is 90%. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, in its annual report, names it as an issue. The report includes a quote from somebody living in a centre. The person referred to it as "the dehumanising experience which eats away at my dignity". I would like to focus my main remarks on not only...

Seanad: Immigration (Reform) (Regularisation of Residency Status) Bill 2016: Second Stage (29 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If we are to negotiate with the UK around the common travel area, what we need is a system that is objectively fair and transparent and properly applied, which we can stand over.Not only do I reject the amendment, I also reject arguments to the effect that we should suspend fair systems within our asylum, refugee and immigration system in order to facilitate negotiation in respect of a common...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: In regard to the Order of Business, I welcome that we will have the opportunity today to discuss the Brexit referendum. It is important we discuss it in terms of our relationship with the UK and in terms of the future of Europe, looking beyond the question of negotiations to the kind of framing we would have for Europe, in particular how we might address the toxic language of racism and...

Seanad: United Kingdom Referendum on European Union Membership: Statements (28 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will speak for three minutes and give two minutes to my colleague. Many of us have shared some of the disappointment and shock - I am sure Members have received personal communications from friends and colleagues across the UK - with regard to the referendum decision. Nonetheless, we must acknowledge and respect the decision that was made by voters in the UK. However, I echo what...

Seanad: United Kingdom Referendum on European Union Membership: Statements (28 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Pardon?

Seanad: United Kingdom Referendum on European Union Membership: Statements (28 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: May I just have one minute and then I will pass over?

Seanad: United Kingdom Referendum on European Union Membership: Statements (28 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Apologies. Fundamentally, there are two key messages that Ireland needs to send out. The first is that relating to how we view immigration. The response must not be that immigration is a problem. The EU needs to send a signal from the top that immigration is something with which it, as a huge body, can deal in a calm and responsible way. When we held our referendum on citizenship , we...

Seanad: United Kingdom Referendum on European Union Membership: Statements (28 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----which have been raised in the context of people's concerns about austerity. I apologise to my colleague. We only decided to share time at the last minute. I will leave it there.

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Yesterday the Select Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny met the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. It was interesting that there was a discussion on the commitment in the programme for Government to equality-proofing and gender-proofing of the budgetary process. In the commitment to new politics about which we have been hearing one of the key matters is reform of the...

Seanad: EU-UK Relations: Statements (22 Jun 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister for joining us today and facilitating this important debate. Many Senators spoke eloquently about the impact and economic costs of a British exit from the European Union. There is an irrefutable economic case for supporting a Remain vote in the referendum. Substantial costs would have to be borne if the British people were to choose Brexit, especially in Northern...