Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The committee is considering recent events in Gaza and the Middle East peace process. To that end, it has invited both the Palestinian and Israeli ambassadors. I thank both of them for agreeing to attend the committee before the Dáil is back in plenary session. The purpose of the meeting is to listen to the presentations by the ambassadors and ask them questions so as to increase our level of understanding of the situation there. Members should not attempt to avail of the opportunity to vilify any of the witnesses appearing before us today or seek to make lengthy speeches akin to statements in either House. In the event that members have particularly strong opinions on the subject, we can listen to them and can consider a motion for next week's meeting to be submitted after today's meeting.

I remind members, those in the gallery and witnesses to ensure their mobile phones are switched off completely for the duration of the meeting as they cause interference, even in silent mode, with the recording equipment in the committee rooms. This is particularly important today because proceedings are being covered live on television.

In addition, in advance of hearing the Israeli ambassador's presentation, I remind members of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person or body outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

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 joint committee. If they are directed by the Chairman 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 that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him or her or it identifiable.

I welcome H.E. Mr. Boaz Modai, Israeli ambassador to Ireland, and the deputy ambassador, Ms Nurit Tinari-Modai. The events in Gaza in the past two months have been widely covered in the media. We have seen a number of truces, but last week's long-term ceasefire which was negotiated by Egypt was a step in the right direction. We hope the ceasefire will hold and that both sides will move forward.

As we have noted, the format of the meeting is that we will hear a presentation by the ambassador which will last no longer than 15 minutes. We will then have a question and answer session, similar to the first one. I appreciate that members will show the same courtesy to the Israeli ambassador as they did to the Palestinian ambassador. That is important. Without further ado, as it is getting late in the afternoon, I thank Mr. Modai for the communications he sent to us. Particularly in my role as Chairman, he keeps in touch with me on what is happening. Even during the 50 days of the war in Gaza, he kept in regular contact to update me, as did his Palestinian counterpart. I thank him for this and his regular meetings with us. I invite him to make his presentation.