Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to send my good wishes to Senator Denis Landy. I am sorry to hear he has resigned. He was an exceptionally hardworking Senator, and a good county councillor and representative of the Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA, for many years. He advocated strongly for city, county and local councillors in terms of their remuneration, conditions of employment and developing policy, education and training on an ongoing basis. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues in Tipperary, the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, and LAMA, with which he worked very hard.

He was an exceptionally hard worker and will be missed. He was tremendously proud on his first day. I met him the day he was first elected to Seanad Éireann and he was particularly pleased. We had a healthy rivalry in the last election because I was also on the agricultural panel. He will be missed on a number of fronts and I want to wish him well in whatever he decides to do in the future.

I renew my request that the Taoiseach be invited to come to Seanad Éireann at some point, this side of Christmas if possible or in the new year. It would be an important step for the House and the Taoiseach to have some sort of engagement. It is to be hoped the Leader will take that up.

I again ask for the Minister responsible for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to come before the House at some stage. There seems to be some conflict between who will ultimately fund the commitments following from the convention, in terms of the Departments of Finance or Health. This seems to be a stumbling block. At the end of the day, it is Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance which are in government. The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, has responsibility for disabilities.There is a commitment in the programme for Government to deliver on this commitment and it is important that we keep the pressure on and ask people in government to explain what is happening. I would appreciate if the Leader could arrange for a briefing on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with a view to signing the convention as soon as possible.