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

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and answers. It was a good start to our work in the area.
We move now to our second discussion under the topic, which is with Mr. David Fitzsimons, chief executive of Retail Excellence Ireland, Mr. Martin Blackwell, CEO of the Association of Town Centre Management UK, who has come over especially for today's meeting, which we appreciate, and Mr. Cormac Kennedy, chairman of Retail Excellence Ireland's town and city revival committee and head of property in Easons. They are here to discuss policy options to support business growth and job creation and retention in towns and villages. The witnesses will have heard the end of the first set of presentations and will have the gist of what is happening. The joint committee's plan is to meet and engage over the next couple of months with a great many stakeholders in the area to formulate a report which feeds into initiatives under the Action Plan for Jobs. Decisions will be made on the report, so we hope it will be a useful one which leads to action.
By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. If they 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 be given and are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person or persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.
I ask Mr. David Fitzsimons to make his presentation, which we will follow with questions and answers.