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

Okay, so I now propose that the committee go back into public session; is that agreed? And we'll now deal with session 3 of our hearings today with Mr. Con Honan ... Horan, Central Bank of Ireland IFSRA, and the Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis now resuming in public session and can I ask members and those in the public Gallery to ensure that their mobile devices are switched off? This afternoon, we will continue our hearings with witnesses from the Central Bank of Ireland Financial Regulator. At our next session, we will hear from Mr. Con Horan, the senior official from the Central Bank of Ireland IFSRA.

Mr. Con Horan joined the Central Bank in 1979, where he held a number of roles. In 2003, he became head of banking supervision at the Financial Regulator and was appointed as prudential director in February 2006. Mr. Horan was appointed in February 2011 to the position of special adviser to the head of financial supervision, Matthew Elderfield. He was since seconded to the European Banking Authority in April 2011. Mr. Horan, you're very welcome before the committee this evening.

Before I hear from the witness, I wish to advise Mr. Horan that, by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect to their evidence to this committee. If you are directed by the Chairman to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and you continue to do so, you are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of your evidence. You are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given. I would remind members and those present that there are currently criminal proceedings ongoing and further criminal proceedings are scheduled during the lifetime of the inquiry which overlap with the subject matter of the inquiry. Therefore, the utmost caution should be taken not to prejudice those proceedings. In addition, there are particular obligations of professional secrecy on officers of the Central Bank in respect of confidential information they have come across in the course of their duties. This stems from European and Irish law, including section 33AK of the Central Bank Act 1942. The banking inquiry also has the obligations of professional secrecy in terms of some of the information which has been provided to it by the Central Bank. These obligations have been taken into account by the committee and will affect the questions asked and the answers which can be lawfully given in today's proceedings. In particular, it will mean that some information can be dealt with on a summary or aggregate basis, such that individual institutions will not be identifiable.

Members of the public are reminded that photography is prohibited in the committee room. To assist the smooth running of the inquiry, we will display certain documents on screens here in the committee room.

For those sitting in the Gallery, these documents will be displayed on the screen to your left and right. Members of the public and journalists are reminded that these documents are confidential and they should not publish any of the documents so displayed. The witness has been directed to attend the meeting of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis. You have been furnished with booklets of core documents. These are before the committee, which will be relied on in question and form part of the evidence of the inquiry. So I now ask the clerk to administer the oath.