John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this meeting is to meet with representatives of the Irish Road Haulage Association, IRHA, to discuss the impact Britain's HGV Road User Levy Act 2013 will have on Irish hauliers, particularly as it applies to Northern Ireland. We will also hear about other issues including commercial vehicle road tax, vehicle testing, cabotage, the National Employment Rights Authority and outsourcing of the Irish road haulage industry. On behalf of the committee I welcome Mr. Eoin Gavin, Mr. Eugene Drennan, Mr. Richard Nolan and Mr. Paul Donovan of the Irish Road Haulage Association.
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 you are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and you continue to so do, you are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of your 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 nor make charges against any person or persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. The opening statements you have submitted to the committee will be published on the committee's website after the meeting.
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 House or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.
We only have the use of this room until 1.45 p.m. and we are also due to hear from representatives of the Freight Transport Association, so we will have to keep this section to an hour. I have already asked members to keep their questions as brief as possible so everybody will have an opportunity to participate. I ask Mr. Gavin to limit his presentation to ten minutes, if possible, because often the questions and discussion can be better. I invite Mr. Gavin to make his presentation.