John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Pat McCormack, deputy president and chairman of the dairy committee of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA; Mr. Shane O'Loughlin, secretary of the Wicklow branch of the ICMSA, and Mr. Michael Kelly, researcher with the Irish sugar beet bio-refinery group.

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 they are directed by it to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to do so, 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, persons or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. 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.

This has been an extremely long meeting. We commenced proceedings at 1.30 p.m. and some members have been present throughout the day. Members have informed me that they have read the submissions. For this reason, I ask Mr. McCormack and Mr. Kelly to highlight the main points of their presentations as this will give us more time for questions.