Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In session 2 the committee of inquiry into the banking crisis will have a discussion with Ms Maeve Donovan, former managing director, and Ms Geraldine Kennedy, former editor of The Irish Times, on the role of the media during the property boom in the lead-in to the banking crisis in the period 2002 to 2007.

In our session this morning we focused on the role of the media during the property boom in the lead-in to the banking crisis in the period of 2002 to 2007 and any change in approach after the crisis. I welcome Ms Donovan and Ms Kennedy who have been invited to discuss The Irish Times' editorial policy on the economy and the property boom and, separately, the newspaper's business model and sources of revenue, including that from the real estate sector during that period. Ms Donovan joined the newspaper from ICC Bank in 1977. She held a number of senior management roles in the company before being appointed managing director of The Irish Times Trust Limited in 2007. She retired in 2010. She holds an MSc from Trinity College Dublin and has served as chairperson of NNI, the newspaper industry representative body. She has been a director of the International Newspaper Marketing Association, INMA, and served in the European national newspaper group of the World Association of Newspapers. She is also a director of the Children's Medical & Research Foundation, the fund-raising board for Crumlin hospital and the National Children's Research Centre.

Ms Kennedy was appointed editor of The Irish Timesin October 2002, the first woman to hold the post in the history of the newspaper, and retired in June 2011. She has covered politics for The Sunday Tribune, The Sunday PressandThe Irish Timesfor most of her career. She was a Member of Dáil Éireann between 1987 and 1989 when she served as spokesperson on foreign affairs and Northern Ireland for the Progressive Democrats Party and in the role of Chief Whip. She was a member of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges and the inaugural Anglo-Irish Parliamentary Tier. As editor, she was awarded five honorary doctorates for her services to journalism by Queen's University Belfast, 2005; Dublin Institute of Technology, 2007; University College Dublin, 2008; Trinity College Dublin, 2009; and the University of Limerick, 2012. She is an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy and adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Limerick.

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. If they are directed by the Chairman to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to so do, they are 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, as they have been informed previously, the committee is asking them to refrain from discussing named individuals in this phase of the inquiry.

Members are reminded of the long-standing ruling of the Chair to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I invite Ms Kennedy to make her opening statement to the inquiry.