Results 1,321-1,340 of 1,773 for speaker:Lynn Boylan

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I will be brief because I want to get to my amendment, No. 4. I support Senator McDowell's amendment on funding from State sources and it is important that people know where their money is being spent. I am flagging that we might expand on this on Report Stage because I am concerned about a particular expert body. This goes back to when I was asking for clarification on section 4 and if...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 4: In page 6, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 16 of Principal Act 9.The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 16: “The code of conduct to protect the public interest from fossil fuel lobbying 16A.In this section— ‘fossil fuel lobbyist’ means a...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I remind the Minister of State that there is the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and there are limits on the tobacco industry lobbying. Meetings with the tobacco industry are not allowed regarding the promotion of the product. That is exactly the reason I am making the point; we have accepted that there are certain industries that we are moving away from...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by GAA President, Mr. Larry McCarthy (26 Apr 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by GAA President, Mr. Larry McCarthy (26 Apr 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Well said.

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by GAA President, Mr. Larry McCarthy (26 Apr 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Public Water Connection Charges: Motion (26 Apr 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I also welcome the motion and thank the Green Party Senators for bringing it to the House. It is a valid suggestion to waive the connection charges for local authorities and community groups that are seeking to provide a water connection to public water bottle refill stations. We all know, and many have spoken about, how plastic water bottles...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I thank all of the speakers. I was going to pick on the topic of LEU rebalancing but I am heartened to hear there will be a full analysis of how the mistake was not picked up. I will instead speak about the SOLR issue. Did I understand Mr. Gannon correctly when he said, on the moving figures, that it was 16% electricity customers and 18% gas? Did they opt to change supplier or did they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: On the CRU website, it states that Gas Networks Ireland, GNI, is not producing a ten-year network development plan, which I think is similar to EirGrid's capacity statement. Is it not concerning that it is not going to produce that? Surely we need to know what the forecasting is for gas usage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: The CRU supplied the committee with the latest figures for islanded data centres. I think there were 11 data centres connected to the gas grid. There seem to be conflicting views between GNI's view of whether this is a problem, Government policy and the climate action plan. The Government said it believed islanded data centres threaten our emissions reductions and it would rather they do...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Moving to electricity demand, demand reduction was brought up earlier by Senator Higgins, I think. We did not meet our targets. I think gas demand was a voluntary reduction of 15%, which we did not meet. I think it was actually 0.3%. In electricity demand reduction, we were the only country apart from Malta that went completely the wrong way. There was an overall 10% reduction figure and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Does Mr. Gannon have concerns about the changing of metric used? Ember would have used the data from a comparison with 12 months previously. Their report released last week showed Ireland and Malta as complete outliers. Yet, when we look through the European Council document, they for some reason have decided to go with predicted demand. It does seem Ireland benefits significantly from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: My understanding is the European Commission was to use the 12-month figure as the baseline originally. It was a member state that called for the change.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I have a couple of questions. It has been a long meeting and I appreciate the witnesses' time. I will pick up on what Deputy Whitmore said about pricing in and the impact of demand on the prices. Did the EU regulation not clearly stated that reducing electricity demand at national level can have a positive nationwide effect on electricity prices? The EU has already made the connection that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I mean no disrespect to the witnesses because they are gracious every time they appear before the committee. When we try to get answers, however, we are always told by the relevant Minister that it is the CRU is accountable to the committee. For this reason, we cannot get answers from the Minister. The reason members always have a raft of questions when the CRU appears is that we cannot...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: On the installation of the fossil-fuel boilers, are there any concerns for the future about locking people into high energy bills, particularly low-income households which are the ones eligible for these grants?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: These are existing houses, so these are pensioners or people on a fuel allowance payment. They are being locked into a fossil-fuel boiler arrangement that will last them for ten to 15 years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: It seems the tariff mechanism is not very clear for the average person looking at a bill. I have been stopped by people and asked when is the €50 being returned. In one sense there is an expectation that this refund is going to come up on the bill but this is not going to be the mechanism. It would be valuable, in the interest of transparency and from a consumer sentiment point of...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (10 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I would like to use today's Order of Business to ask the Leader to consider allocating time in the Seanad for statements on the report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which was released recently. There were 150 recommendations in the report. The report also rightly highlighted the failure of this State to adequately fund, implement and enforce existing laws and directives....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (9 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: When examining the SOLR review, will the CRU consider bringing in a bond so that when companies leave the market, it is not going to be the SOLR customers who have to pick up the tab? Electric Ireland would not have hedged for those extra customers, which has a knock-on impact on everybody else.