Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Aidan Carrigan, assistant secretary at the Department of Finance; Mr. Niall O'Sullivan and Ms Rosie Keane from the markets and securities unit in the Department; and Mr. Oliver Gilvarry and Mr. David Owens from the Central Bank of Ireland. The format of this session will be the same as the last one, with the witnesses making some opening remarks of no more than five minutes each. A question and answer session may follow to clarify any matter. I remind members that they must switch off mobile phones. I advise the witnesses 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 this committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter to only 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 or persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.