Results 101-120 of 1,773 for speaker:Lynn Boylan

Seanad: Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: Is that agreed? Agreed.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: When is it proposed to take Fifth Stage?

Seanad: Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: Is that agreed? Agreed.

Seanad: Situation in Palestine: Motion (21 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: Is fáilte an Aire. I echo the commendations for the Civic Engagement Group on bringing this motion to the Seanad. They speak day in and day out about the horror that is unfolding in Gaza. The one thing we see Palestinians say is, "Don't stop talking about it. You are our voices. Our lives depend on this." I am not the only one in saying that the feeling of powerlessness, frustration...

Seanad: Situation in Palestine: Motion (21 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: I welcome the decision of the Taoiseach to call on the European Commission to urgently review the EU-Israel association agreement, but I argue that real action would be to trigger Article 82 to immediately suspend the association agreement while a review is being conducted. It is worth comparing this with the actions in respect of UNRWA and the allegations relating to 12 UNRWA workers. That...

Seanad: Situation in Palestine: Motion (21 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: Well said.

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 1: In page 8, line 7, after “Heritage” to insert “, Minister for Finance”. This amendment seeks to amend section 9(2) by including a provision that the Minister for Finance may not be appointed by the Government as the majority-shareholding Minister of Gas Networks Ireland. Currently the subsection provides it may not be the Minister for...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: The concern, which we will get to when we give the example of the shareholder letter of expectation of Coillte from 2022, is if the Minister for Finance is the majority-shareholding Minister, he or she could try to generate the maximum number of shares for the public, as opposed to balancing that with the climate Act.That gives us cause for concern because of the way in which GNI is working...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 2: In page 8, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “(4) An order made under subsections (2)or (3) shall require approval by resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas.”.

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 3: In page 8, between lines 37 and 38, to insert the following: “(4) The majority-shareholding Minister shall, on a bi-annual basis, lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas any shareholder letters of expectation issued in respect of Gas Networks Ireland.”. The amendment follows on from our concerns about the Minister for Finance being the...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 4: In page 12, to delete lines 30 and 31 and substitute the following: “(ii) by the insertion of the following definitions: “ ‘Act of 2014’ means the Companies Act 2014; ‘carbon budget’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the total...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: The Minister of State has said repeatedly that Gas Networks Ireland is consistent with the climate action plan, that it is in line and its policies are in line.

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: The Department of the environment has said that islanded data centres are not compatible with the climate action plan. I will quote a Department official for the Minister of State: A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said that any centre not hooked up to the electricity grid could damage Irish emissions targets. The policy statement highlights the undesirability of...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: Again, we are hearing that there is no inconsistency with what we are trying to achieve and what the Government says it wants to achieve but there is an urgency here. There is no inconsistency with what the EU gas package, for which we must wait, wants to achieve and yet, while we dither and dawdle about restricting the connection of data centres to the gas grid, more and more of them are...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: What is the difference between introducing a moratorium on data centres connecting to the electricity grid and data centres connecting to the gas grid? No issues around discrimination of treatment arose with the electricity grid. We instructed EirGrid not to connect data centres to the electricity grid and no such issues were raised by the CRU or by Government Ministers at the time.There...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: That is certainly news to everybody on the climate committee because we have been repeatedly told that there is a moratorium on connections to the electricity grid by data centres. EirGrid only a week ago told the committee that its view was that it was detrimental to the Irish economy because it was not in a position to connect any data centres to the grid due to the moratorium it was...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: The Minister of State said he would check the ten-year network development plan. One has not been published since 2021, which, I would point out, is in breach of SI 16/2015 - European Communities (Internal Market in Natural Gas and Electricity) (Amendment) Regulations 2015. We are dragging our feet on this issue. The Minister of State is not going to accept the amendments; I get that. It...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 5: In page 12, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(i) in subsection (1)— (I) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (a): “(a) The Board shall own, operate, develop and maintain a system for the transmission and distribution of natural gas, being a system that is carbon budget-aligned, economical and...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: I move amendment No. 6: In page 13, after line 40, to insert the following: “(d) in section 10A— (i) in subsection (4), by the insertion of the following paragraphs after paragraph (h): “(i) the terms and conditions upon which applications for new connections or expansion of the gas network must be assessed to consider the expected emissions profile of...

Seanad: Special Measures in the Public Interest (Derrybrien Wind Farm) Bill 2023: Second Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Lynn Boylan: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. It is important to put some context around the Bill that we are being asked to support tonight. It is also important to look at Ireland's record on upholding environmental and nature laws. In January 2022, the EU official responsible for overseeing governance, enforcement action, and compliance on EU environmental legislation, told an...