Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

You are all welcome. This meeting is for the purpose of the scrutiny of EU proposals COM (2011) 778 and COM (2011) 779 by officials from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. I welcome Mr. Pat Houlihan, Ms Marie Dempsey and Mr. John Moynihan from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. They are here to brief the committee on COM (2011) 778, a proposed directive on the statutory audits of annual accounts and consolidated accounts, and COM (2011) 779, a proposed regulation regarding the statutory audit of public interest entities. The committee deems these proposals significant and therefore worth further scrutiny. I am pleased the officials are in a position to brief us on them and to talk us through them.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. If you are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in respect of a particular matter and you continue to so do, you are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. You are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and you are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, you should not criticise or make charges against any person, persons or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. I call on Mr. Houlihan to begin the briefing on COM (2011) 778 and COM (2011) 779.