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

Okay, so, with that said, I now propose that we move back in to public session, is that agreed? And we deal with session 3 this evening ... or this afternoon's public hearing is with Mr. Tom O'Connell, former assistant director general and chief economist, Central Bank. The Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis is 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.

Today we continue our hearings with senior officials from the Central Bank of Ireland and Financial Regulator and at our session this afternoon we will hear from Mr. Tom O'Connell, former assistant director general, chief economist at the Central Bank. Tom O'Connell joined the Central Bank of Ireland in 1970 as an economist, he was appointed assistant director general of the economics division in April 200. As chief economist, his responsibilities were economic analysis, research and publications, monetary policy and financial stability statistics. He retired in 2010. Mr. O'Connell, you are very welcome before the inquiry this afternoon.

Before hearing from 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 of 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. The utmost caution should then 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've 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 answered 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 only, 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 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 to be 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 and you have been furnished with booklets of core documents. These are before the committee and will be relied upon in questioning and form part of the evidence to the inquiry. So, if I can now ask the clerk, in commencing proceedings, to administer the oath to Mr. O'Connell. Thank you.