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

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the recently published report of the entrepreneurship forum entitled Entrepreneurship in Ireland: Strengthening the Startup Community. I welcome Mr. Sean O'Sullivan, chairman of the entrepreneurship forum; Ms Wendy Gray, from the small and medium sized enterprise policy unit in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation; Mr. Daniel Ramamoorthy, founder and chief executive officer of Treehouse; and Professor Tom Cooney of the Dublin Institute of Technology.

I draw attention to the fact that 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. However, 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, persons or 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. I invite Mr. O'Sullivan to make his presentation.