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

The sole topic for discussion this afternoon is the ambulance service review by Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. I take this opportunity to welcome to the meeting Mr. Phelim Quinn, chief executive of HIQA; Ms Mary Dunnion, acting director of regulation; and Mr. Marty Whelan, head of communications and stakeholder engagement.

At the beginning, on my own behalf and, I am sure, behalf of all in the room, I formally congratulate Mr. Quinn on his appointment as the new chief executive in replacement of Dr. Tracey Cooper and wish him every success, and pledge to him the committee's full co-operation. We all look forward to working and engaging with him over the coming years. We hope that, in his capacity as CEO, he might come back to us at a later date to speak on his vision of and role in HIQA in the future as opposed to doing so as part of a meeting dealing with the issue before us.

The meeting today is to hear evidence from the officials of HIQA on an important review on ambulance response times, which they have carried out and published this morning. With that, I ask Mr. Quinn to make his opening remarks.