Since being elected to the Seanad in 2016, Senator Alice-Mary Higgins has sponsored over 20 separate bills, and won over 70 amendments, making real change in policy and law.
These amendments were won by vote, by agreement of the Seanad or by persuading the Minister to accept the policy point of the amendment and bring it into law with their own wording.
She has also proposed and won cross-party support for a number of motions.
Alice-Mary has sponsored and co-sponsored the following bills:
Amendments
Affordable Housing Act 2021- won amendments requiring that apartment management companies do not charge exorbitant fees and requiring housing authorities to give key consideration to the long-term sustainability of diverse and inter-generational urban communities.
Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Act 2020 - an amendment to ensure that the Minister would also receive a copy of the records from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes - ensuring that any future Minister remains a data controller for these records for the purposes of fulfilling subject access requests under GDPR.
Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Act 2021 - an amendment to ensure that emergency Covid-19 powers could not be renewed by motion indefinitely without Oireachtas scrutiny and a full legislative process.
Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 - amendments to remove the poor definition of climate justice - meaning that it is defined in line with the UNFCC and the Paris Agreement. Also an amendment to ensure that members of any advisory committees of the Climate Change Advisory Council would be subject to rules regarding disclosure of interests.
Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2021 - This legislation implemented my amendment to the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 to ensure that rights of way not formally declared would not automatically cease to exist.
Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Act 2021 - an amendment to ensure that planning authorities would be required to keep records of external consultation regarding large-scale residential developments.
Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 - an amendment to remove the restriction on adoptees knowing the name of persons who inquired about them while they were in an institution. I also won amendments to ensure that the information campaign was advertised internationally and to ensure that where a person seeks information about themselves from a body and there are no records they are signposted to other4 services including the contact/tracing service.
Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 - a number of amendments including a requirement for the Media Commission to have regard to the safety of children, the regulation of gambling and sustainability when carrying out its functions. I also won an amendment specifically providing for the creation of an Online Safety Commissioner. I won further amendments making programmes for biodiversity eligible for the European Works Funding Scheme and giving the Media Commission the power to restrict the marketing of breast-milk substitutes. I also strengthened Irish language rights and gave the Media Commission the power to cooperate with local community groups on education and training.
Higher Education Authority Act 2022 - amendments to ensure that student representatives on university governing authorities are elected student union representatives and are not handpicked by university management.
Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 - an amendment to remove the provision that provided for regard to economic competitiveness in setting domestic violence leave. Ensuring full pay when on domestic violence leave is important, especially in situations of coercive control, and removing this harmful provision helps guarantee adequate domestic violence leave pay in the future.
Historic and Archaeological Heritage and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 - amendments to include the Valetta Convention and other relevant international treaties in the legislation, to recognise community value as criteria for designating protected monuments and to allow the Heritage Council to consult with An Taisce, the National Museum of Ireland and local authorities before carrying out works that affect national monuments.
Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2024 - an amendment to give the new Mayor’s office a mandate on sustainable development, restoration of nature and biodiversity.
Planning and Development (Housing) andResidential Tenancies Act 2016: 4 amendments including an amendment to strengthen rental protection and another to prevent fast-track planning permissions from being held in reserve for extended periods of time.
Adoption (Amendment) Act 2017 1 amendment to ensure that a review into open or semi-open adoption would take place within 10 months of the Act passing into law. Following that review, the Department have changed policy and introduced, post adoption contact plans and counselling supports for the first time in Ireland.
Data Protection Act 2018 4 amendments and a shift in policy to ensure that public bodies would not be exempted from fines for misuse of personal data but would instead face fines of up to one million.
Heritage Act 2018 1 amendment won and a number of other compromise amendments achieved. Through working with other parties across the Seanad, progress was made in the course of the debate to limit out of season hedge-cutting to only roadside hedges and to extend the opportunities for local authorities and members of the public to raise objections under the canals part of the legislation. Lengthy Seanad debates helped build public and political pressure and in summer 2019, the Minister announced that hedge-cutting would not be allowed in August for that year.
Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 1 amendment won with a specific focus on limiting advertising and sponsorship by alcohol products where it may affect children.
Mediation Act 2017 1 amendment was won to ensure that in any situation where mediation is being recommended, each person is made aware that mediation is a voluntary process which may not be appropriate for everyone, particularly where they have experienced domestic violence or coercive control or feel there is a risk to safety, and no one should feel pressured to agree to it.
DomesticViolence Act 2018 Senator Higgins, along with a number of other Senators, proposed amendments to legislate for controlling and coercive behaviour as a criminal offence. After significant discussion and further stakeholder engagement a version of this amendment was introduced into the bill by the Minister.
Social Welfare Act 2019 1 amendment was won to provide for a report and recommendations to be made by the Minister and the department regarding one parent families. The report will particularly examine the issue of income disregard for parents of children between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
Greyhound Racing Act 2019 3 amendments were won to improve the protections given to the welfare of greyhounds by ensuring that there is at least one vet on the board of the relevant association and that retirement and rehoming plans are put in place for greyhounds.
Data-Sharing andGovernance Act 2018 Approximately 24 amendments were accepted to bring the Bill in line with the Data Protection Act and GDPR - excluding special categories of personal data from the scope of the act except in very explicit circumstances, strengthening the security of data-sharing between public bodies, and strengthening the capacity of individuals and citizens to exercise their data protection rights.
Wildlife Bill 2016 9 amendments were won to maintain protections to peatlands as part of Ireland’s natural and cultural heritage, biodiversity and carbon sequestration sources. The amendments include a requirement that the Minister and department must complete an audit on the condition, restoration potential and re-wetting potential of any blanket bog before an order can be made for de-designation as a natural heritage area.
Motions
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Motion
Housing for People with Disabilities
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver on Covid-19 vaccine technology
Urgent Action on Gaza
Precarious Work Conditions in Colleges and Universities
Read a PDF of my election leaflet.
Reminder to all NUI graduates who have a vote in the NUI Seanad Election to post their ballot today. Completed ballots must reach the NUI in Dublin by 11am Wed 29th January.
Paula Meehan, Caoimhe Butterly, Mary McAuliffe, Caitriona Crowe and other brilliant women sharing Nollaig na mBan thoughts about whey they support Alice-Mary's work in the Seanad on gender equality and many other issues that matter to women across Ireland.
Dear Friends,
In the months since my last newsletter, I have, like many of you, been heartbroken and outraged by the devastating loss of life in Gaza. I have been taking every action I can, nationally and internationally to press for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, respect for human rights, international law, and an end to the global escalation of conflict.
Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins has today strongly criticised the decision by Government to force through planning legislation that will fast-track the construction of fossil fuel infrastructure and which is not compliant with European environmental law.
Campaign to Pass the Occupied Territories Bill launched as Taoiseach signals intention to revisit issue and requests updated Attorney General guidance
Civil Engagement Group Senators Alice-Mary Higgins, Lynn Ruane, Frances Black and Eileen Flynn have today slammed the decision of the Government to guillotine Committee Stage consideration of its deeply flawed Planning and Development Bill 2023, which is riddled with significant and substantive defects.
We welcome the opportunity to engage in this consultation and urge that the Department would provide further opportunities for engagement at later stages. At the outset we must signify our total opposition to this draft Bill as it falls far short of the blueprint for real Seanad reform that has been agreed on a cross-party agreement.
The first portion of our submission deals with the broader questions and the second part deals with the very significant problems with the Bill as drafted.
We are of the view that:
The Seanad Franchise:
The question of the implementation of the seventh amendment of the Constitution cannot sit in isolation from the wider question of Seanad reform. The Supreme Court ruling confirms that action must be taken. However, a minimalist approach to legislating on this issue would not be true to the spirit of either the 1979 or 2013 referenda – in which the public clearly called for reform.
The public voted in the 2013 referendum for a reformed Seanad and the 2015 Report of the Working Group on Seanad Reform (the Manning Report) clearly recommended that “a majority of the Panel seats be elected by popular vote on the principle of one person one vote.”
Senator Alice-Mary Higgins welcomes the recognition of the State of Palestine but says now we must cut other support streams from Israel.
In light of Ireland’s recent recognition of the State of Palestine, the Seanad Civil Engagement group is calling for tangible actions to curb the flow of arms being used in the relentless assault against the people of Gaza. On Wednesday 29 May, Senators Alice-Mary Higgins, Lynn Ruane, Frances Black and Eileen Flynn will be bringing a Bill to the Seanad that seeks to ensure that munitions of war, weapons and dangerous goods are not being transferred to Israel through Ireland, either directly or indirectly.