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

The second session will be a discussion with representatives of Forfás regarding access to finance for SMEs.They are Mr. Martin Shanahan, chief executive; Mr. Adrian Devitt, manager for economic analysis, competitiveness, infrastructure and tax and finance policy; and Ms Maria Ginnity, manager for enterprise policy and evaluations. These are a couple of very long titles and there is much responsibility for people in those areas. I welcome the witnesses.
As they know from listening in the Visitors Gallery, I must read out some formalities before getting into the session. 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 a witness is directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in regard to a particular matter and continues to do so, the witness is entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of his evidence. Witnesses are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and are asked to respect the parliamentary practice that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any 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 members 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 invite Mr. Shanahan to make his presentation to the committee and thank him for coming before us today. We will have questions afterwards.