Results 81-100 of 538 for long speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...will be necessary and proportionate, rather than making it clear in the Bill. Why not just make it clear in the Bill? Then every employer knows what it is meant to do. There will not be a situation where you have to have a long chat with an employer where it is asking you questions and it does not know what it can ask you and you do not know what you have to tell it. Let us make it...

Seanad: Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...central to making us a society that does not have the scourge of violence, domestic violence and violence against women in different forms. Those acts of violence occur internationally but have a long history in Ireland. This is a different matter from negotiating between interest groups. It is a rights-bases piece. It is not a matter of balancing the interests of employers and...

Seanad: Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...sends a very strong punctuation piece and would become the de facto end so that people would not get flexible leave arrangements after a child was 12. At that point a person is in an employment long enough. By using this language, we are having this arrangement fall off a cliff and going back to the very beginning. It is not like when someone is first applying for a job and maybe...

Seanad: Wind Energy: Statements (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...energy market. What happened at European level with the EU taxonomy, which was an opportunity to redirect major investment into renewables, was regrettable. With renewables there can be a very long period of time for the return, for wind energy and certainly for solar.In terms of redirecting energy investment into those areas it was regrettable that the taxonomy was watered down and gas...

Seanad: Planning and Development and Foreshore (Amendment) Bill 2022: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (15 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...have largely come from the fact that planning was not done properly in the first place and shortcuts were sought. Any time we seek a shortcut, we create further problems and often end up making the process longer. I am concerned that it is seen as so burdensome and something to be avoided that we try to avoid having to talk to the public on environmental matters. We then create...

Seanad: Planning and Development and Foreshore (Amendment) Bill 2022: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (15 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Serious concerns about An Bord Pleanála have been flagged for a long time. We have heard a lot about the Government learning from things. I welcome the inclusion of a use it or lose it requirement in the section. We looked for such a requirement when SHDs were going through and we were not given it. We flagged concerns on SHDs back in 2016 and they were not listened to. That is why...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (13 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...that have introduced vacant property taxes, the usual cut-off period is six months. In Ireland's case, it is one month, which is a very low bar to meet. The idea of a vacant property tax has been long called for. It was very much welcomed. Many people, when they saw the 30-day requirement, came to me believing it meant the property would be considered a vacant property if it were...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (13 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...week because the standard to be set is that there would be electricity to the house and a person literally dwelling there. It does not state that a person must physically sit in the house all day long. It is a matter of saying that it needs to be an occupied property and not a vacant property. The Minister of State's examples are not pertinent in this regard. However, what is pertinent...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...top earners - those on higher incomes, who are predominantly men - whereas a universal pension would largely address the issue of women and the inequality in our pension system that women have experienced for a very long period of time. I had looked for a comparative report on these different points. I have very serious concerns in respect of the potential increase in contributory...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister. As I said, there may be circumstances where a household approach is the best but there may well be particular circumstances where, for reasons of financial independence in long-term situations, an individualised approach is better. It will contribute significantly to the effectiveness of means testing.

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...time you are not going to have access to social protection schemes or to supports and your family will not have access to that because the period of time, especially for councillors, is going to be longer than the two years' previous contributions. People are effectively not just taking the risk in running for public office but they are taking a very serious risk in regard to their...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: .... They are workers and that point has been well made. One of the improvements is that secretarial assistants in the Seanad are finally getting recognised as administrative assistants, which is long overdue. The pension for those who had been secretarial assistants for up to 30 years was less than €10,000 per year. We need to recognise all the people who work in the Oireachtas as...

Seanad: Cuimhneachán ar Chothrom Céad Bliain an Chéad Suí de Seanad Éireann – 11 Nollaig 1922 - Commemoration of the Centenary of the First Sitting of Seanad Éireann – 11 December 1922 (12 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...by minority voices and the Seanad has historically been a space where individuals from different traditions, experiences and perspectives can contribute to national debate. However, we still have a long road to travel on equality and inclusion. It took 98 years for Travellers to win representation in the Seanad with the appointment of Senator Flynn, a powerful Member of the Twenty-sixth...

Seanad: Statements on COP27 (8 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...is what forced loss and damage to be such a strong item on the agenda at this COP coming after the disappointments of Glasgow. In regards to the EU position, to be honest the EU has avoided this for a long time. I understand that there are other countries in the past ten, 15 or 20 years which have also looked at great wealth in emissions. I understand those points in respect of that,...

Seanad: Comhshuí de Dháil Éireann agus de Sheanad Éireann - Joint Sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas - Address by H.E. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission (1 Dec 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...introduction of the general data protection regulation was also another positive moment in that regard. Unfortunately, there was a period during austerity when the momentum to which I refer and any long-term, sustainable and inclusive vision for Europe seemed to be cast aside in favour of short-term fiscal targets. Austerity eroded public services, the social fabric and public confidence...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: EU Directives (30 Nov 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting the matter and the Minister of State for attending. It has been reported, as the Minister will be aware, that in the negotiations on the long and eagerly-awaited new EU corporate sustainability due diligence directive Ireland has taken a position to seek the exclusion of asset managers and institutional investors and certain products associated with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Irish Experience of Community-led Climate Action: Public Participation Networks (8 Nov 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: May I come in on because we have had a long back and forth?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Oct 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will speak to amendment No. 17. While I am in favour of clear measures on gender equality in general in legislation, and we have been waiting a very long time for incremental progress, there is a problem with the way in which section 12(6) is worded. That is the subsection Senator Ward is proposing to amend. It is possibly inadvertent but it addresses the fact that a number of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: COP27: Discussion (25 Oct 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...through a loss and damage payment while also pushing for a better EU position. Will Ireland support a loss and damage facility? This is not a brainstorming of ideas; it has been called for for a long time. Will we back the 130 countries that have called for that when they call for it again and when that decision point comes, or will we do only what some other countries in the EU are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Youth Perspectives on the Circular Economy and COP27, including Climate Justice and Energy: Discussion (21 Oct 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ...but about a group of gases. Greenhouse gases constitute a group of gases and we need strategies not just on carbon but on methane, which is an accelerant that heats things up. It does not last as long but it heats things up faster. We also need strategies on nitrogen and nitrates. It is extracting. What might be meant to last 40 years is getting dragged out of the soil in a shorter...