Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The first item today is the report on pension charges in Ireland. I welcome officials from the Department of Social Protection: Ms Patricia Murphy, principal officer, pensions and carers policy unit, and Mr. Robert Nicholson, assistant principal. I also welcome Mr. Andrew Nugent from the Pensions Board, Mr. Joe Morley from the Central Bank and Mr. Niall McGrath from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

I wish to draw the attention of witnesses to the following. By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they are to give to the committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against a person or persons or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. I advise the witnesses that their opening statements will be published on the committee's website after the meeting.

Members are reminded of the long-standing ruling of the Chair to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I now invite Ms Murphy to make her opening remarks.