Results 1-20 of 422 for long speaker:Victor Boyhan

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 May 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...body made up of representatives of our heroic health workers. Its simple ask, made in a formal request to the Government, is for the HSE's pay and numbers strategy to be published. This has been long promised. I ask the Leader to use her good offices and we in the Seanad to use our connections to ask the Government to produce the HSE pay and numbers strategy. Clearly, we need workforce...

Seanad: Flooding on Lough Funshinagh: Statements (30 Apr 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ....We need to find a solution and possibly an emergency order, as Deputy Fitzmaurice suggests. I wish to hear more about that from the Minister of State. We also need short-term, interim, medium-term and long-term solutions because we cannot drain lands at Lough Funshinagh only to have this doing potential damage elsewhere in County Roscommon. We have to follow the science and take...

Seanad Public Consultation Committee: The Future of Local Democracy: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Apr 2024)

Victor Boyhan: .... I am a former county councillor for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. I get the sense from councillors across all four Dublin local authorities that they are working exceptionally well. It has taken a long time to bed them down. Mr. Henchy touched on the reasons this new structure came about and the unwieldy old Dublin County Council, as it was. Mr. Edge touched on the Government...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Apr 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...establishments and the European Union and rural communities and farmers; environmental inspections; the lack of a new revised charter for farmers and agriculture, which needs to be updated - it has long been promised; horticulture; food production; local authority farm inspections, which are especially challenging at this time; and the need for accurate calculations in respect of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (Resumed) (24 Apr 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...regulations. As outlined by our guests, the text will now be subject to inter-institutional scrutiny, as per the EU's ordinary legislative procedures, which will take many months. There is a long trajectory to all of this. I ask our guests to outline the inter-institutional scrutiny process. I will outline my other queries and if they can, I ask that our guests would assist us. They...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (Resumed) (24 Apr 2024)

Victor Boyhan: Would it be possible for the Department to share a summary of those concerns with the committee at some point? It would be helpful to us. We are a long way out from this and we have a lot of time, but it would be helpful for us to understand the concerns of the stakeholders, with whom we engage as a committee anyway. That would be helpful. Finally, just to finish, there is the issue of...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Early Childhood Care and Education (23 Apr 2024)

Victor Boyhan: .... It is brilliant. Everyone talks about how positive it is and how it impacts and assists families who wish to see their children being nurtured in the community in which they live. In the long term, I would like to see the further expansion of early childhood care and education because it is the right way to proceed. The Government is to be commended on its work but today I want to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Mar 2024)

Victor Boyhan: I apologise for delaying proceedings, but people sped up. I indicated earlier. It has been a long day for the Cathaoirleach and it has certainly been a long day for us in Leinster House. I have two or three questions. The first is to Mr. Towey from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. In his submission paper, he stated the Department allocated funding for five EPA...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Mar 2024)

Victor Boyhan: I thank all the witnesses for their time. This has been a long session. There have been many sessions on this particular issue, so we really value the witnesses’ time and I thank them for joining us here tonight.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (27 Feb 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...O'Gorman, will publish the opening of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme, which has approval by Cabinet. We now know that this scheme will go live on 20 March 2024. It has been a long time coming and many people have been waiting. I have personally been involved in this issue for years. I have had personal experience of it. We debated this to a great extent and at great...

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

Victor Boyhan: ...care for its service users. That is the crux of the problem. Today, the board of St. John of God is meeting, as are people in the HSE. It is important that we resolve this matter. In the long term, we have to ask ourselves about the impact of having one agency charged with the care of 8,000 vulnerable people in our State and the challenges around that. Are we serious about taking...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (21 Feb 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...and the Acting Chairperson, Senator Kyne, of that request. I will keep my remarks tight because I am conscious everyone wants to get moving on it. Amendment No. 4 seeks to address an issue of long-standing concern, namely, the power afforded to local councillors. It is well documented that executive decision-making in local government has, for far too long, been extremely undemocratic....

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (21 Feb 2024)

Victor Boyhan: I thank the Minister of State. He said he would listen and reflect. I did not quite know to what extent but I see in amendment No. 19 much of what we debated about regeneration.It seemed to take a long time to hammer out something there. We will come to amendment No. 36 later. Nevertheless, I will indicate now that I think amendment No. 19 addresses it. I work with people and I think...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (21 Feb 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...did a lot of work on it and commitments were given in that regard. Let us not allow the proposal to wither on the vine. Well done to the Minister of State and his officials on completing this long and arduous process. I thank him for his engagement with us. As a former Senator, he understands the importance of the work of this House and the frustrations we sometimes face. He engaged...

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

Victor Boyhan: ...and appropriate assessment. Galway County Council is the local planning authority. That is an important point I ask the Minister of State to address. The challenge is to find a solution to the long-running saga of Derrybrien. Vital wind energy with the capacity to feed power into the national grid cannot be destroyed. Yes, there are questions to be asked of the ESB. Yes, there are...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...support and legitimacy to what are, in effect, equal, valued members of a local authority. They have been elected by the people. They are in a local democracy, a local parliament. For far too long, we have had sub-divisions based on political affiliations in some councils. Some councils are more progressive than others so it varies in each of the 31 councils. I understand that amount...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (14 Feb 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...currently undertaking a Europe-wide public consultation, and states that it is critical Ireland uses the opportunity to stress the critical importance of the derogation to Ireland and emphasise the long-term retention and so on for the whole industry. I accept and understand that. What more would they like the committee to do? How can we collaborate more? I do not think they need to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Proposed Changes to River Shannon, Grand and Royal Canals and River Barrow Navigation By-laws: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Jan 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...keep up the resistance because it is very hard to do battle with people on water. It is very hard to evict people and push them out. To all those listening, I say that we are going to be in for a long battle on this issue if we do not have a bit of common sense, meet people halfway and recognise that, to a certain extent, this is a non-regulated situation in certain ways. This has gone...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Proposed Changes to River Shannon, Grand and Royal Canals and River Barrow Navigation By-laws: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Jan 2024)

Victor Boyhan: .... I will go back to that point that it is also a living community. In fairness Mr. Rowe acknowledged the significance of the advocates who really kept the thing going. Like him, I have been around a long time and there is going to be resistance to this. We must be realistic and be adults here. Let us see if we can come to the line of negotiation that meets Waterway Ireland's ambition...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Second Stage (24 Jan 2024)

Victor Boyhan: ...it both ways. In Limerick they took a decision to have a directly elected mayor. Fair play to them and I wish them well. The Minister of State has not been in this particular office for that long and he must face up to the reality that local government is totally underfunded and underresourced. Councillors do full-time work on part-time pay. In the Minister of State's words from...