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

I now call the committee back into public session. Is that agreed? Agreed. We now commence with session 2 of today's public hearings with Ms Mary Burke, Central Bank of Ireland IFSRA. The Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis is now resuming in public session. Can I remind members and those in the public Gallery to ensure that their mobile devices are switched off? Today we continue our hearings with the Central Bank of Ireland and the Financial Regulator. At our first session this afternoon we will hear from Ms Mary Burke, a senior official at the Central Bank IFSRA. Later this afternoon we will hear from another Central Bank IFSRA witness, Mr. Con Horan.

Mary Burke joined the Central Bank of Ireland in 1984 and has worked in financial services regulation and supervision since 1998 across various industry sectors. In May 2006, she was appointed to the position of head of banking supervision at the Financial Regulator. She is currently head of prudential policy at the Central Bank, a position she has held since 2010. Ms Burke, you're very welcome and I would also like to acknowledge that you are accompanied today by your legal representative, Mr. Niall Michelle.

Before I hear from you this afternoon and the witness, I wish to advise the witness 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 and, 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 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 lawfully be given in today's proceedings. In particular, it will mean that some information can be dealt with in a summary or aggregate basis only such that individual institutions will not be identified.

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 the screens here in the committee room. For those sitting in the Gallery, these documents will be displayed on the screens to your left and right and 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 this 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, will be relied upon in questioning and form part of the evidence of the inquiry.

So, if I can now ask the clerk to administer the affirmation to you.