Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Senator Daly and also thank the Minister. I have said it time and again. The Minister is amenable to having discussions outside these Chambers to explain the rationale and thought process of his policy and direction, which is helpful. I start by thanking his officials. That is where it is at. We do not have to be at loggerheads. It is lonesome to be in the Opposition. There are so few of us. The vast majority of Senators belong to Government parties. The record of any amendments ever being passed in any legislation here is small. There is simply a mentality of "No" all the way. However, there is an old saying in golf that there is always the long game.We are well and truly past the half-term stage of this Parliament. There will be other teams and opportunities, situations tend to reverse and the pendulum swings back the other way. In fairness, the Minister is one of the few who engages in a constructive and meaningful way. I thank him for that. I also thank Deputy Cahill, Chair of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who has done a great deal of work on this Bill. I thank the Minister's team. I thank the Bills Office, which does an amazing amount of work on all Bills. It has significant timelines and is under considerable pressure to get things right. I thank the Seanad Office, and I ask Ms Considine to convey that to the team there. I thank the Leader and the staff of her office. Ultimately, it is they who schedule business. The Minister has been lucky in that he has been given nice, tight and crisp schedules. That does not happen often. It is quite difficult to get space on the Seanad's agenda. I thank the Senators, all of whom are on the Agricultural Panel, for their meaningful engagement, which is half the battle.

I wish the Minister well, but I want to say something else. There is provision for a great deal of staff, there is a recruitment process, there is the Public Appointments Commission, etc. Today is 4 July. I hope we will not be here on 4 August or 4 September and that, by 4 October, I will be standing in the Chamber using a Commencement matter to ask the Minister to tell us that the regulator is up and running, what progress has been made and how many staff have been appointed to it. That is the challenge with which I will leave him. We want a full regulator's office, with staff recruited, up and running. I hope we will not be back here at the end of next year saying it has no staff. I acknowledge that offices like this one take a long time to bed in and crank up, but I ask that constructive pressure be applied to get it up and working as fast as possible. We will be on recess for a little under two months. In the first week of October, I will submit a Commencement matter asking for a progress report from the Minister on the establishment of the regulator’s office and the number of staff that have been appointed. I hope I will get a positive response. Let us all work to that objective.