Results 21-40 of 7,254 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

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: Communications, Climate Action and the Environment: Statements (6 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister. His brief strongly combines both urgency and a long-term perspective, even beyond that of other Ministries. That urgency and long-term perspective was addressed to the area of broadband. Obviously, urgent action is needed and I commend that. However, I join others in expressing concern in terms of the long-term implications in regard to the issue of privatisation....

Seanad: Communications, Climate Action and the Environment: Statements (6 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: With regard to energy policy, I urge the Minister to challenge the question of fracking to ensure we maintain our position, and to have an open mind and to look again at the Corrib gas project and how we should approach that in a different way. This is a huge and important issue and has perhaps been a blind spot in the past. With regard to divestment, on which I was very happy to support...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: Speaking on behalf of the civil engagement group, I commend Senator Bacik on bringing forward this very positive legislation which I would like to see move swiftly through the House and swiftly into action. I also commend Senator Nash who has pushed forward a suite of measures in respect of this legislation. It is good to see support from all sides of the House. Looking back over a...

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: Social Protection: Statements (12 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister to the House again and congratulate him on his appointment to this Ministry, which deals with one of the most crucial areas in terms of shaping our national life. Social protection plays a crucial role in terms of investing in Ireland's people and in the security, equality and inclusion which are essential to both sustainable economic growth and social cohesion. In...

Seanad: Public Procurement: Statements (12 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This issue is of crucial importance, as it was in my previous role with the National Women's Council of Ireland where it was a key area of focus. It is also an important issue for ICTU, the trade unions and the European women's lobby. At a European level, there is a vibrant debate on best practice in this area and I would like to see Ireland at...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (13 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: On behalf of the Civil Engagement group, we are very proud to support the proposal of this Bill and to support it through Second Stage. We have talked about this being timely. In fact, I think it has gone beyond being timely and is now urgent. We have the imperatives of the multiple reports over so many years, as outlined by Senator O'Donnell, but we also now operate under two further...

Seanad: Summer Economic Statement 2016: Statements (Resumed) (14 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister for Finance and Minister of State to the House. In the Minister's speech we saw an acknowledgement of the recent anomaly in the published GDP figures that claimed there had been a 26% growth in the economy. The figure has been roundly mocked and led to unwanted attention on a global level. In the debate since then we have been urged to focus on other figures, such as...

Seanad: Summer Economic Statement 2016: Statements (Resumed) (14 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We mentioned the rainy-day fund, which needs further examination. We also need a much clearer debate on what is constituted by it and what its rules might be. We also need future-proofing in other areas, such as procurement, in order to protect our policy options. I have spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, about this matter. In addition, we require equality-proofing,...

Seanad: Citizens' Assembly: Motion (15 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am very delighted to second the amendment moved by Senator Ruane, and I will be proposing an additional one. Both are constructive and reasonable and they seek to tighten the timeframe and focus of the citizens’ assembly. It is important to note that while a citizens’ assembly may have value as one part of a national conversation on and response to the issue of the repeal of...

Seanad: Citizens' Assembly: Motion (15 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The time constraints have been unacceptable.There are those who will get a call from a polling company-----

Seanad: Citizens' Assembly: Motion (15 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----who will have had an abortion and who will not feel free to participate in this assembly.

Seanad: Citizens' Assembly: Motion (15 Jul 2016)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I apologise.