Results 421-440 of 1,773 for speaker:Lynn Boylan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Poverty: Discussion (23 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I want to pick up on this point and ask the witnesses their view on the standing charge and whether the CRU needs to have greater powers over it. Once again, whether people are reducing their energy use for efficiency reasons or because they cannot afford not to do so, they are punished by the fact that the standing charge is increasing as they are reducing their energy use. Would the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Energy Prices (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, and I welcome the women from the Liberties. I am a fellow Liberties woman, so it is great to see them in the Chamber. I wish to raise the issue of the impact of increasing electricity demand on electricity costs for households. The focus over recent months in the cost-of-living crisis has been on the cost of energy and the cost of gas heating....

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Energy Prices (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I thank the Minister of State. We all know that households have to play their part in reducing their demand, and smart meters are part of that. I have flagged numerous times that many people who live in apartments and flats are being gaslit by the Government's policy when they hear people on the radio telling them when is a good time to dry their clothes outside when they are not actually...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Energy Prices (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Yes.

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I will speak briefly in favour of the amendment. I agree that we need greater transparency. The amendment is relevant in the context of my amendments relating to fossil fuel lobbyists. The Irish Academy of Engineering lists itself as a non-profit organisation harnessing the expertise of engineers and providing independent advice to policymakers and industry, yet it has repeatedly appeared...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 5: In page 6, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “Insertion of section 16A into Principal Act 9.The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 16: “Report on code of conduct to protect the public interest from fossil fuel lobbying 16A.(1) Having regard to the success of the United Nations World...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: These amendments follow on from the debate we had on Committee Stage. On Committee Stage we had tried to bring in a code of conduct specific to fossil fuel lobbying, building on the style of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. I think there is a general acceptance that we are now at a situation when it comes to climate change that we do not have time with...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I wholeheartedly agree with Senator Norris that the tobacco industry engaged in the exact same tactics as the fossil fuel industry, which knew for decades that its activities were leading to global warming but fought and spread disinformation. In fact, some of the same individuals were involved in spreading that misinformation. Exxon's whole campaign has been very well publicised, where...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: No.

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 6: In page 6, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “Insertion of section 16A into Principal Act 9. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 16: “Report on how to protect the public interest from fossil fuel lobbying 16A. Having regard to the success of the United Nations World Health...

Seanad: Disregard of Certain Criminal Records of Gay Men: Motion (17 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I commend my colleague, Senator Warfield, on tabling this Private Members' motion in the Seanad. We sometimes reflect on how far we have come as a country in terms of rights. I recently listened to the "Inside the Crime" podcast and it brought back just how different a country Ireland was in the 1970s and 1980s. The podcast covered the murder of Charles...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: I wish to raise the very disappointing news that yet again Ireland's emissions are on the rise when they should be going in the other direction. It is deeply concerning that once again we have the worst record in Europe. It needs to be said that more and more of our carbon budget is being consumed by ever more demand for electricity. The Government agreed at an EU level in November 2022 to...

Seanad: Climate Action and Biodiversity (Mandates of Certain Organisations) Bill 2023: Second Stage (16 May 2023)

Lynn Boylan: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I commend Senator Higgins, the Civil Engagement Group and Sárán Fogarty in Senator Higgins's office on bringing forward this Bill. It is really important the State leads by example when it comes to tackling climate change.We need that collective action and a strong, co-ordinated response. Through Government-led climate action we can...

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: 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.