Senator Alice-Mary Higgins joins launch of Irish Neutrality League on World Day of Peace

“Our voice for peace is precious, it’s something the public values, it’s something that makes a difference in the world.” 

Today, on World Day of Peace, I was glad to join with others from across the Oireachtas to formally launch the Irish Neutrality League (INL), a campaign which calls on the Irish Government to assert Ireland’s neutrality positively on the world stage, to be a voice for peace, promote human rights, to promote international law and oppose war and militarisation.  

Ireland has been and can be a really strong voice on international law, including where there are terrible breaches of international law as we’ve seen with Russian’s illegal invasion and occupation of Ukraine or indeed breaches of international law that may have to be tried in the future as war crimes. 

Our credibility as champions of international law is greatly strengthened by our status as a neutral nation, and willingness to promote these same principles everywhere in the world wherever those laws are being breached without fear or favour.

Electoral Reform Bill fails on Seanad Reform

On the Electoral Reform Bill I proposed 7 Seanad Reform amendments. Very disappointed that the Government did not support them & refused to give a clear mandate to the Electoral Commission on long promised & overdue Seanad reform. I have been working on Seanad reform since I was first elected and despite the work of Senators from all groups to agree legislation, the Government is continuing to delay long overdue and needed reform.

Government needs to act on concerns on Higher Education Authority Bill

The Higher Education Authority Bill will have a major impact on staff, students & society. I proposed over 100 amendments. Following strong criticism of use of guillotine at Committee stage, Report stage has been adjourned, meaning there is still chance to improve crucial aspects of Bill.

One of the key issues I raised was the importance of trade union representation from both professional & academic staff on governance boards as well as proper national strategies to challenge the serious problem of precarious low paid work within academia.

The proposed definition of student union in the Bill is not fit for purpose & based around recognition from Minister or governing authority rather then electoral mandate from students. Students union representatives from right across country have made it clear this needs to be fixed!

The Bill will give huge amount of power & discretion to Minister, including requirement for higher education institutions to comply with future policy docs of Government. Bill must be amended to ensure appropriate independence, transparency & autonomy for both HEA & individual institutions.

Another core aspect we sought to address was embedding equality, equity, access and participation into the legislation and creating legal requirements that both HEA & individual institutions policies are furthering & empowering access to & equity in our higher education system.

The Bill continues the practice of focusing entirely on private research & not looking to public/blue skies research or public-public partnerships for research. To address issues like climate, inequality and sustainable development we need a robust public research system

The references to sustainability & environment in the Bill are woefully outdated & inadequate, coming from a 1987 pre-Rio definition of “environmental development”. I sought to include the definition based on the SDGs with acknowledgement of historical responsibility & climate justice.

Following pressure from Senators, the debate has adjourned till September & there is time for Minister Harris to work constructively with us as legislators & with stakeholders to address these & other issues. The HEA Bill will underpin higher education for years to come, we need to get it right!

Senator Higgins calls on Government to oppose EU-Israel Gas Deal

The European Union agreement to import gas from Israel is morally inconsistent & does not even specify exclusion of occupied territories - especially worrying given gas reserves in Levant Basin. This week, I asked Minister Eamon Ryan to speak up for international law at key EU meeting of Energy Ministers next week.

‘Quality in Public Procurement’ Bill passes Committee Stage in the Seanad

Yesterday, Senator Higgins’ ‘Quality in Public Procurement’ Bill passed Committee Stage in the Seanad. The Bill places quality at the heart of the public procurement process and moves public procurement on from the current approach of automatically awarding contracts on the basis of lowest price. The Bill will make price-quality ratio the default approach for awarding public contracts, either on its own or combined with life-cycle costing.

Climate change clock is ticking, so before it’s too late, have your say on our future

Irish Independent Opinion Piece - Sat 5th Feb 2022

Ireland is starting late on climate action, and we need to start stronger. The public have until Tuesday to demand ambitious carbon budgets with no stalling and no spinning.

The latest international report on climate change was described by the UN as a “code red for humanity”. It warned that the crisis is “widespread, rapid and intensifying”.

Every week, in every part of the world, we see communities under water, homes lost to wildfire, families forced to flee, crops failing and habitats destroyed. If global temperatures rise by more than 1.5C, these events......

Seanad passes Senator Higgins’ motion calling for a TRIPS waiver

Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins today introduced a motion in the Seanad calling on the Government to support a TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver on Covid-19 vaccine technology and on the Government to publicly call on the European Commission to do the same.