David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Apologies have been received from Deputy Anne Ferris. The purpose of today's meeting is to engage with members designate of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC. On behalf of the committee I welcome all the witnesses to this meeting. They are all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and up early so I thank them for being here. Could everybody please turn off their mobile phones? It is not good enough to have them on silent because it interferes with the sound system in the House. We have staff who are listening in and they hear static if the phones are not switched off completely, so I would appreciate that.

Before we begin, I want to draw the attention of witnesses to the fact that they are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. If witnesses are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to do so, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. Witnesses are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. Members should be aware that under the salient rules of the Chair, they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the House or an official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

This is a particularly important meeting. It is useful because we are in public session and the public will hopefully be listening in and have an opportunity to hear what we have to say this morning. It will probably be the first of a number of engagements between the committee and the IHREC members and I invite Professor Siobhán Mullally to make an opening statement on behalf of the members designate.