Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The committee is now sitting in public session in its capacity as the Joint Sub-committee on Petitions. This petition is entitled equality and fairness regarding the raising of the State pension age to 66 and beyond. The petitioner was Mr. Henry Gaynor and it is petition No. 33 of 2013. Mr. Fergus Whelan, industrial officer in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, is with us today. We are very grateful to him for assisting us in our deliberations. I remind everyone to be careful with mobile telephones. This is a live session being viewed by members of the public and I wish those tuning in well.

Before commencing, I must inform Mr. Whelan that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, he is protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence he gives to this committee. If he is directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and he continues to so do, he is entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of his evidence. He is directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and he is asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, he 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.

We look forward to listening to Mr. Whelan's presentation and we will have questions and answers after it.