On Friday, Senator Alice-Mary Higgins returned to the Seanad to pass the Health Emergency legislation in response to COVID-19.
She spoke about our social fabric, intergenerational solidarity, our public health system and its frontline staff as well as the carers, cleaners, and others doing essential work - including the factory workers making lifesaving ventilators.
We will face difficult decisions in the short, medium and long term and, when we get to the other side of this difficult dark time, it won’t be business as usual.
We must emerge with a society and economy that are more sustainable and resilient to future challenges. The €750 billion which has been released by the ECB in response to coronavirus must go first to public services and it must be climate proofed.
In advance of Budget 2019, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty appeared before the committee. Senator Higgins called on her to make progress on some of the issues which she has strongly advocated for over the past year and before.
I spoke in favour of Senator Lynn Ruane and Senator Fintan Warfield's bill to lower the voting age to 16 for local and European Parliament elections. The evidence behind this bill is clear. It is not just that 16 year olds need the opportunity to meaningfully engage with their communities, it is also crucial that young people help to shape the future of their communities and Europe. It is very disappointing that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have blocked this bill for another nine months; meaning that it is likely that many young people will not have the opportunity to vote in the highly important European Parliament elections of 2019.