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

Apologies have been received from Deputy Michael McNamara who, although due to attend this meeting, is in Strasbourg.

The only item on today's agenda is an engagement with: the Irish Airline Pilots' Association; the Central Representative Council of union groups in Aer Lingus; the Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Limerick chambers of commerce; Chambers Ireland; and Shannon Group plc.

The purpose of the meeting is to engage with stakeholders in order to establish the likely repercussions of any potential sale of Aer Lingus to the International Airlines Group.

Members of this committee have been circulated with the document I received from Ireland West Airport Knock, which is obviously also anxious about connectivity issues.

On behalf of the committee I would like to welcome everybody. I wish to draw the attention of witnesses to the fact that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, they are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee.

However, if they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a 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 they 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 or her identifiable. I also wish to advise that any submissions or opening statements they have made to the committee will be published on the committee's website after this meeting has concluded. 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 an official outside the Houses by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I ask those who are speaking to keep their presentations as brief as possible and to try not to overlap with other speakers. I want to provide as much time as possible for engagement between members and witnesses. I ask members to confine their contributions to approximately three minutes. If they want to come back with supplementary questions later in the meeting, I will try to facilitate that. I want us to run the meeting as efficiently as we can. I ask Captain Evan Cullen to make a presentation on behalf of the Irish Airline Pilots Association.