On the 8th Februrary 2016, Senator Higgins launched the Age Action Report which detailed how the changes introduced in 2012 to pension entitlements had a disproportionately negative impact on women.
Senator Higgins had contributed to the research for this report which was written by Maureen Bassett and commissioned by Age Action. The changes introduced in 2012 disadvantaged many of the same women who had been impacted by the legacy of past injustices such as the marriage bar.
Senator Higgins has previously campaigned for just pension reform in her roles with Older and Bolder and the National Women's Council of Ireland, in particular addressing the gender pension gap. As a member of the Social Protection committee, she continues to bring the systemic gender inequality in Ireland's pension system to the agenda.
The launch of this report was covered in the Irish Independent,
The proposal, due to be voted on by the parliament this week, in the last plenary session before the elections, would limit decisions on the work programme of the European Defence Fund to the European Commission and committees through “implementation acts”, effectively bypassing debate, criticism or approval from MEPs.
Irish Naval Service rescued 18,000 people from drowning in the Mediterranean since 2015. In 2017, the mandate changed from a "primarily humanitarian search and rescue operations to primarily security and interception operations". Senator Higgins condemned this decision with the Minister at the time and said that this would result in more people dying while making the journey across the Mediterranean.
