Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I remind Members, witnesses and people in the Visitors Gallery that mobile phones must be switched off because they interfere with the broadcasting of proceedings and with the work of members of staff, which is unfair to them.

I formally thank and pay tribute to our outgoing clerk, Mr. Paul Kelly, who is leaving us to go to a different section of the Houses of the Oireachtas. He has been a very watchful, careful and excellent clerk and has with dealt with many sensitive issues in private and public sessions. To me, as Chairman of the committee, he has been a source of strength and has become a very good friend. I thank him most sincerely for his stewardship of the committee.

I welcome to our family of the Committee on Health and Children, which is what we are to be fair, Mr. Ronan Murphy who is joining us from the Local Government Management Agency. He is very welcome and I wish him a happy tenure with us. He will find we are an eclectic bunch of people. He will also find we have a very good work ethic and a strong sense of what is right as a committee, both in private and in public. I welcome him to the committee and thank Mr. Paul Kelly most sincerely.