An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
============================================================

Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel

First, I thank Senator Ruane for her contribution here today regarding her own experience and that of her friends, colleagues and associates in relation to addiction. One of the great things about Seanad Éireann is the intimacy of this place as a Chamber and how each and every Member on all sides of this House brings their personal experience to their parliamentary work. There is nothing to beat personal experience, the lived experience. I acknowledge and thank Senator Ruane for sharing. It is never easy to talk about your own personal sets of circumstances. Politicians are great at talking about everybody else and the problem here, there and yonder, but when it comes right to the core of the person, it exposes a vulnerability about him or her. When we are vulnerable, I think we are at our strongest. I really believe that in connection with anything important. That authenticity makes us real and makes us connect emotionally. That is really important. Few people have that gift and Senator Ruane is one of them and I thank her for that. I thank her for that openness that she brings and that empathy about her own life experience in her parliamentary business. It makes her a very special person. I am so glad, and I think we all are, that Senator Ruane is a Member of this diverse House. That is the other great thing; we are diverse.
I have only one question to ask the Leader. Tonight there will be a very interesting Private Members' motion before us, which I do not intend to go into now, in the name of Fianna Fáil. I welcome that healthy debate about it, but it occurred to me that it all goes back to that issue of core funding for local government. We have in this country, at best, local administration. We do not have a comprehensive local government model such as there is across Europe. Today I looked at the chamber of commerce's submission to the local democracy task force consultation, dated August 2025. Will the Leader facilitate a letter to or communication with the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and the principal Minister, Deputy James Browne, on when the Government intends to publish the local government task force final report and recommendations? I ask that that would happen before the summer recess. It is important. The councillors of all parties and none now expect its publication. It is timely, essential and important. Will the Leader facilitate the request? That is all I am asking.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24