Senator Alice-Mary Higgins speaking on Statements on Education in the Seanad

24 September 2020

Senator Alice-Mary Higgns speaking on Statements onEducation in the Seanad. Addressing Minister for Education, Norma Foley, Senator Higgins highlighted class sizes, heath and safety for staff and students and fair treatment for third-lvel applicants who completed their Leaving Cert before 2020.

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“Comprehensive and detailed further scrutiny of CETA must now be undertaken by a number of other Oireachtas committees”

16 September 2021

Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins has called for other Oireachtas Committees to undertake scrutiny of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) following the split-decision of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs on the need for further scrutiny.

Seantor Higgins seeks amendments to Social Welfare Bill regarding Public Services Card roll-out

13 December 2017

During the Seanad debate on the Social Welfare Bill 2017, Senator Higgins raised several concerns with the Minister for Employment and Social Protection about the introduction of the Public Services Card and the heavy-handed manner in which the roll-out has been conducted.

Senator Higgins joins Oireachtas colleagues in calling for more effective health and safety protocols

19 May 2020

As we enter Phase One and the reopening of certain sectors, the safety of society and workers has to remain paramount. I have joined Joan Collins T.D, Senator Lynn Ruane and number of other Oireachtas colleagues, in supporting proposals put forward by Unite and other unions to ensure that health and safety protocols in the workplace are effective and enforced and that that trade unions have an active role in monitoring worker safety.

We called on the Government to update the Return to Work Safety Protocol document and give inspectors the resources to conduct unannounced health and safety inspections of sites and issue on the spot fines. I have personally highlighted the need for more robust inspections on building sites where, as we heard in the Employment and Social Protection Committee last year, there is an excessive reliance on false or pressured ‘self-employment'.