Results 921-940 of 8,482 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Long-Duration Energy Storage: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It strikes me that, as Mr. Smith said, the cost of gas has been so high that this would have been an insurance policy. Back in the day, however, we had the national oil reserve idea and we perhaps need to look to something equivalent in the form of a sustainable energy reserve.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank our witnesses. I will pick up where Deputy Conway-Walsh left off. I feel it was almost a case of two different things being asked for and given. Much of the discussion was around value for money and the review of each project. When how these projects were assessed was being described, it was almost like they were being described as being assessed within themselves. The questions...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Two issues arise with that. One relates to the area of housing leasing. We do not get the property back at the end of the lease. We have been spending on housing leasing and the property is effectively owned by the original owner at the end of the lease, even though they have their mortgage paid by the State. In those contexts, we do not have that return, so it is hard to see how that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Mr. Dorgan mentioned ten years ago, but in the past five years the fiscal context has been completely different. Are the cost-benefit analyses publicly available that look at direct Exchequer versus public private partnerships on any of those 29 projects? Are they published? Will the witnesses confirm we are in a different fiscal context and have been for a few years now?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Either way, it should be part of the comparative analysis.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a very good question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Did the IMF not suggest that when it suggested direct expenditure from the Exchequer? Would that model not fit that kind of IMF suggestion? I apologise to Deputy Boyd Barrett for cutting in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It just strikes me that it seems very similar to what the IMF said, namely, we should be looking at direct expenditure from the Exchequer. That would be one form.

Seanad: International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Motion (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister. There has been much discussion of what this pact does and does not mean for Ireland, but first we must look at the much broader context in terms of modern migration and asylum and the deep roots of the current inequality and injustices that are leading to asylum seeking and migration. We have historical injustices and oppression. War displacement and injustice are...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 3: In page 11, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “Report on care 6. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas outlining the measures taken to ensure that those who engage in care work outside the labour market are supported to ensure equitable access to, and outcomes...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister's answer points exactly to the problem which is that the Commission's examination explicitly excluded consideration of the tax relief. It is not necessarily even about removal but reform of the private pension tax relief, which is currently set at a marginal rate. This means that a higher earner gets 40% tax rate relief. Low-income earners only get 20% tax relief. Not...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a Government matter and this is a Government policy. It is a pension policy matter. The fact that we continually refuse to talk about the tax relief is a bad sign that it might not stand up. We are talking about the State and how we plan for the future of the population. In respect of constantly talking about tax relief and saying that the commission cannot talk about it - we could...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Yes.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 4: In page 11, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “Report on universal pension 6. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas on the introduction of a universal pension, which shall include— (a) detailed research and modelling on the potential introduction of a...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 7: In page 13, lines 13 and 14, to delete “with investment management providers”. Amendment No. 7 seeks to raise the fact that the practice of using external asset managers for State investments has left us open to portfolios where there may be significant human rights and environmental risks. Amendment No. 8 seeks to amend section 9(2)(a)(ii) of the...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 8: In page 13, line 28, after “digital” to insert “and accessible”. I will withdraw the amendment in light of the Minister’s elaboration.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 10: In page 15, line 1, after “governance,” to insert “gender equality,” Amendment No. 10 seeks to amend section 11 around the membership of the authority board by providing that one of the competencies which the Minister would seek is in gender equality. In my earlier contribution, I outlined how this is the part the State has got wrong....

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: While I appreciate the gender balance issue, gender equality expertise is the piece that is explicitly being sought. When we talk about these representative bodies, the member would, of course, be a member of a board and would have to operate for the good of the board. The question is about that expertise, however. We know there is an expertise that comes from having engagement with a...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We are really into an extremely serious issue then because it is State money. It is public money that is being given to individuals, and if it is being given to those individuals to invest in schemes that invest in arms, the Minister is out of line with regard to our national legislation on cluster munitions. She is out of line in that regard because it prohibits direct or indirect...