Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 5 March 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

Possible Exit of UK from European Union: Discussion (Resumed)

2:30 pm

Photo of Seán KyneSeán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the committee I welcome our speakers, Baroness Quin of the House of Lords and Mr. Brendan Halligan, chairman of the Institute for International and European Affairs. I look forward to hearing from them on these issues.

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 outside the House or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I draw the attention of witnesses to the fact that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses 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, her or it identifiable.

I invite Baroness Quin followed by Mr. Halligan to make their opening statements of five minutes each. We were in London last week where we met two of Baroness Quin's colleagues, Lord Dubs and Baroness Scott, to discuss this issue over a lunchtime round-table discussion.

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