John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this afternoon's meeting is to engage with the officials from the Office of the Revenue Commissioners in order to establish how the scourge of fuel fraud, and in particular petrol stretching, might be satisfactorily addressed. Unfortunately, while we have invited both the Consumers' Association of Ireland and Insurance Ireland, due to previous commitments their representatives were unable to attend today and we will meet with them at a future date.
On behalf of the committee, I welcome Mr. Gerard Moran and Mr. Niall Butler from the Revenue Commissioners. I wish to draw their attention to the fact that by virtue of section 17(2)(i) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. If they are directed by the Chairman to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to do so, they will be 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 are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect 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. I also wish to advise them that any submission or opening statements they have made to the committee will be published on the committee website after the meeting.
Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person or persons outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.
I now call on Mr. Gerard Moran to make his opening remarks.