Results 1-20 of 41 for drugs speaker:Victor Boyhan

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 Mar 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...according to today's edition of The Irish Times. That is disappointing and a pity. It should also be remembered that a very substantial number of children in this State were the subject of drug trials. That matter has never been resolved. There is ongoing litigation and correspondence. I am very much involved in that, so I know about it from personal experience. We need to address...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Oct 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...Europe, and particularly in and out of this country for the purposes of prostitution and slave labour. The links between nail bars and illegal activities and enterprises are being used to fence and bring in drugs. When people are vulnerable there are a whole load of risks around that. I would like to commend Deputy Gary Gannon in particular for organising the briefing. We will have an...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (13 Jul 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...It was disappointing that we could not secure any support from the Government Members of this House for amendments relating to two or three issues I will single out today, the first of which is the drug trials that were carried out illegally on children within State care. In many cases, they are still alive and cannot understand why they have been denied some form of justice. Second,...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jun 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...when you try to summarise what occurred. I spoke to a journalist this afternoon who asked me about some of the key issues. This is about those who experienced racism, those who were subjected to drug trials and those who spent fewer than six months in an institution. None of these people are covered or getting any redress. There are many good aspects to this Bill, but when we...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...of the Scheme should be extended; (g) whether payment rates under the Scheme should be increased; (h) whether assistance or support such as reparations could be offered to those who were subject to drug trials; (i) whether funds from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in Ireland, could be allocated or reallocated to provide assistance, support or...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Homeless Persons Supports (1 Jun 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...evidence there of young people who are homeless and sleeping in doorways. It is clear from seeing and talking to some of those young people that the issues involved in their being homeless include drug addiction, mental health issues, exiting from prison, exiting from institutional or State care and low academic achievement because of constricted academic opportunities due to social...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 May 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...medical trials or experimentation", I have said this before because I have a lot of experience in this area. We know. There is no dispute anymore about the fact that pharmaceutical companies carried out drug trials in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s. They denied them all and eventually through investigations by Prime Time, RTÉ and good journalists, who I acknowledge...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 May 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...I would like to think we could have some engagement within a matter of weeks. I might as well tell the Minister that I am committed to pursuing litigation with a group of people with regard to the drug trials. The State will clearly have to be involved in this. I believe in mediation, consultation, engagement and collaborative approaches. As a result of this business, my personal...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 May 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...cover them all and there was no doubt about that report. There was a very moving sharing of the content of that report by the now Tánaiste but then Minister for Health and there was an acceptance that these drug trials took place. What will we do if they are not included in this scheme? How will we address and police GlaxoSmithKline and others who carried out illegal vaccine...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 May 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...engagement with GSK, which would have been welcome originally. I cannot quite understand that negotiation. We know what happened. There is no ambiguity as to what happened in respect of the drug trials. As regards amendment No. 36, the Minister might consider running a parallel process. He did not really respond to that in the context of the illegal vaccine trials. Here we are...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 May 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...you are explaining, you are losing. When someone puts a microphone up and asks the Minister why he is excluding children from zero to six months who were the subject, or possibly the subject, of drug trials, what will he say? Will he say this system is not robust enough or that we are not putting in place a system for it? I am going to leave it at that. I hate to argue with the...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Second Stage (19 Apr 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...children. We also know the outcomes that affect children for the rest of their lives. To exclude them, therefore, is not acceptable. and cannot be allowed to stand. The other concern I raise today is the issue of drug trials and GlaxoSmithKline. I was in an institution where these drug trials took place. They are not in dispute. They are documented and published in the British...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Apr 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...a mother who stayed in an institution for one night, a child who spent four months in an institution will receive no redress. We have to see that in the context of the now established knowledge of drug trials that took place in care. I will finish on this point. I would like to think that Members of this House will exercise the responsibility and opportunity we have to revise...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Mar 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...homes. I raise it also in the context of the legislation that has been passed in the Dáil precluding children who spent less than six months in the homes from accessing the scheme. We know these drug trials took place on very young children, some of whom were no more than a few weeks' old. All of those children will be excluded under the scheme. I challenge colleagues today, as I...

Seanad: Citizens Assembly on Drugs Use: Motion (23 Feb 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...in response. None of them were negative and they were cross-party and non-party. They raised the issue of the significant involvement of councillors with the community policing forums, local drugs task forces and so on. All of the responses were very positive. They were not responses of the "not in my back yard" variety. I would not tolerate that or advocate for it. These are people...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Jan 2023)

Victor Boyhan: ...We have had engagements with various representatives from the thalidomide action group both in the Dáil and Seanad. It is a travesty and it is difficult to believe that it was in 1961 that this drug was found to have caused birth defects. I was born in May 1961. I thought when I was writing a few notes today that strangely that is the year I was born and that I was lucky that my...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Oct 2022)

Victor Boyhan: ...City Council, it is in the interest of its executive and elected members to run a good city but it is the capital of the country and a city. To see the deprivation, the vandalism, the violence, and the taking of drugs openly on the street, is a shame. Although alarmed as I am, I am around long enough, as are we all, and we understand the social as well as the economic consequences in our...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2022)

Victor Boyhan: ...children were in State care and where the State or its agents were in loco parentisthey had obligations. We know of extensive investigations and litigation, to which I am party, on these alleged drug trials. We know that the Taoiseach, when he was Minister for Health, commissioned Dr. Kiely, the then Chief Medical Officer, to do a preliminary investigation. We subsequently have sourced...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Victor Boyhan: ...why the Government is resisting the use of the word "illegal" over "incorrect". Is it that there is potential litigation down the road? So be it, if there is. I do not have an answer. We know that drug trials were carried out on the kids in institutions and we know the State had reasons there. I am not going to go into that right now. If possible, could the Minister outline in two or...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Victor Boyhan: ...vaccines”. Amendment No. 24 reads: “records of any vaccine trials in which the relevant person was a research subject”.This is an area I know quite a lot about. We know, and it is a fact, that these drug trials took place. They were the subject of a very comprehensive statement by the Taoiseach when he was the Minister for Health and Children all those years ago....