Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Justice Ring and Mr. Tyndall and thank them for appearing in front of the committee. We are doing important work at the moment to finalise our terms of reference. When we were last in public session, members of the committee sought a clarifying statement from the Chair regarding comments he made on Tipp FM. We have not had that statement yet and I would like to take it up at the next opportunity when we are in public session but today I will focus on what we are here to do. I will use my five minutes for a back-and-forth.

In relation to the submission that came in, there was talk of the lack of legal powers meaning that strong links to the Oireachtas were critical. Will Ms Justice Ring give us an idea of how strong those links are today? If we exclude 2020 from being an example year for reasons we know, is it correct to say that when Ms Justice Ring engages with the Oireachtas, she makes a formal request to the committee? If so, has that ever been refused or has she ever encountered delays she considered unacceptable in dealing with the matter at hand?