On one of the first sunny days of the year, it would be reasonable to want to spend it outside. Instead, at quarter past two I made my way to the SIN office to prepare for this interview.
For readers who have never seen the inside of the SIN office in the concourse, it’s a small enough room, with stacks of old issues in a corner sitting on top of two filing cabinets filled with more stacks of former issues. On each side of the room there are two desks, one of which has a monitor connected to a socket with the warning DO NOT TURN OFF. I sat down at this desk to await a call from Senator Alice-Mary Higgins’ office.
The first question I asked was whether or not politics was always something Alice-Mary was destined to do.
“I entered representative politics quite late when I was 40, so for about 15 years I worked in NGO sector and thought that was what I was going to do. I was always interested in the world and interested in justice and working for social change.”
Senator Higgins’ went on to explain that she had always been working on themes of equality while in the NGO sector, and found herself focusing more and more on legislative changes, including coming in to Oireachtas committee to try shape their agendas. She eventually decided that instead of trying to persuade others in the Oireachtas, she’d run for it herself.
“Because I came through civil society, I wanted to do it in a different way, so we set up the Civil Engagement Group. Strengthening bridge between civil society and representative politics”
As the less powerful House, I wondered why Senator Higgins decided to run for the Seanad instead of the Dáil.
“The issues I was interested in were thematic issues. I didn’t want to pursue local issues. The issues were national or international that I wanted to focus on.”
She also contested my framing of the Seanad as less powerful, highlighting how much the House does achieve.
In general the track record is that the Seanad can do anything.
“The reason I like the Seanad, is that in committee stage of legislation, if you’re in the Dáil you’re on one or two committees, whereas all legislation goes through committee stage debate in the Seanad.” She spoke about how the nature of the Seanad allowed her to join the dots between different policy areas.
She also acknowledged that while the Seanad can’t put forward any money bills, it can still impact how public money is spent, giving the example of a bill she put forward, which would see changes to public procurement. “My public procurement bill relates to how the state should spend money (…) in a way that delivers quality and has better environmental and employment standards.” Highlighting the consequences of focusing on price and not quality, she said “this bill requires the decision to be a certain percentage on quality.”
Reaffirming her earlier point about why she feels best placed in the Seanad she stated “The Seanad can do quite a lot; it can tackle themes.”
Continuing on with discussion about what she had been able to work on in the Seanad, Senator Higgins told about the Mandate for Nature Bill, which would change the mandate for Coillte and Bord na Móna, to move “from a commercial mandate to economic, environmental and social sustainability mandate.”
“Storm Éowyn points to the danger of monoculture, driven by their mandate being to deliver cash to shareholders; to deliver short-term profits instead of long term benefits.”
She went on to speak about bringing the Arms Embargo Bill back, “in the context of the horrendous renewed bombardment, and horrifically mounting death toll in Gaza, it is incredibly important. I will be brining the Bill back because the Government have failed to deliver on action.” She continued, “the absolute minimum is that Ireland is not complicit in the breach of international law.”
I asked her what other policy areas she’ll be focusing on over the next five years.
“A lot of the same theme I’ve worked on; climate, social inclusion, peace and international law – those themes are going to be key themes for me again. All of those are really joining together now.” Explaining further, she added “We see a huge rise in militarism, increasing disregard for international law and the UN. Also, we’re seeing a very worrying rollback on environmental standards and equality standards.” Giving the example of plans from the EU commission to deregulate, Senator Higgins expressed concern. “An EU directive required big corporations to have transparency and basic standards around their supply chains, and now there’s a new bill to roll it back.”
Keeping with the topic of environmentalism, Alice Mary said “I will be fighting tooth and nail against the decision to bring back LNG. We need to be vigilant because we’re seeing rollbacks in Europe.”
Our topic of conversation then shifted towards international affairs. “A big focus for me is the positives story of the work of peace.” Ironically, it was at this time that the corridors outside the SIN office became rather unpeaceful as students filtered out of lectures.
Speaking against the politics of might, Alice Mary said “I think it’s in Ireland’s interest to support politics of interest. I worry that we lose sight of the immense benefits that neutrality has brought us.”
“One of my proudest political moments was when Ireland negotiated the global ban on cluster bombs.”
“We can talk credibly and impactfully around peace, and we should be doing that.”
Interestingly, Senator Higgins moved from speaking about Ireland’s capacity to show bravery by supporting peace to how we can show bravery with supporting online regulation.
“We have to be looking to platforms in terms of tools.” In keeping with her earlier framing of politics as a series of themes, she linked online regulation in seamlessly with social cohesion funding being cut. “Who benefits from that? Those who actually want to sow division.”
Our conversation then moved on to Palestine, including how this University reacted. “I will be continuing to support my colleague Frances Black, on the Occupied Territories Bill.” On this University she said “Technion is one which has an active link in Israeli war machinery. I’m hoping the University of Galway, as it initially had, will be consistent [in divesting from Israel].”
In keeping with the relationships universities have with Israel, she stated “I don’t believe Israel should be included in the next round of Horizon funding.” Horizon refers to a funding stream from the EU for research and innovation. According to the Commission’s website “It tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth.”
“I hope Galway will also show leadership internationally when it comes to the next round of Horizon funding. It’s even more important in the context of every university in Gaza having been demolished, when we see the targeting of students in the US, and elsewhere.”
Staying on the topic of universities, “I had a motion around precarity in universities. It’s an area where there’s an international debate happening. I always said the problem with poor employment conditions around the university is that it affects the diversity of who can go forward in the university.” This reminded her of another one of her Seanad accomplishments. “We have that new Higher Education Authority Act; we won that amendment that got a SU representative on the board.”
Returning to the role universities have in the world, she said “We’ve seen huge targeting of research internationally. We cannot afford to neglect the humanity in terms of the research we do.”
Speaking definitively about something she will be fighting tooth and nail against “the [EU] Commission had a discussion paper around Horizon funding getting merged with the European Defence fund.”
Of course an interview with a Senator without mentioning Seanad reform is like an angel without its wings, so you, dear reader, can imagine how delighted I was when Alice Mary brought it up before I could. “Obviously the widening of franchise is welcome but inadequate.” She said, speaking about a recent reform to replace the NUI and Trinity panels with a singular six-seat University panel that all university graduates can vote in. “They did a very minimal response, but didn’t do anything at all for the other 43 seats.” She also implored me to remind you, the reader, to register to vote for the new panel which you can do on SeanadVoter.ie, and if you were registered to vote in a Seanad election before (yes, I’m looking at you, postgrad students) you do need to register again.
Not one to miss an opportunity to highlight the good work being done by others, Alice Mary exclaimed “one last thing”, neither for the first nor last time in this interview. She drew attention to some work being done by her colleagues on culture and shared social spaces. “Opportunities for real world connection – building and strengthening real world empathy and connection.”
The policy elements of our conversation were rounded off with Senator Higgins expressing concern about economics. “There should be more investment in universities and indigenous industries, supporting real innovation – innovation that’s ethical.”
Seán is a final year BA Government student. When not preoccupied wreaking havoc and/or drinking pints, Seán can often be found making the case for various causes through writing, debating, protesting, angrily gesticulating, etc.