Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We will resume in public session with the second item of the meeting which is on addressing deficiencies in adult literacy. I welcome the representatives of the National Adult Literacy Agency.

I draw the witnesses' attention to the fact 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 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 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. The witnesses' opening statement will be published on our website after the meeting. Everybody should switch off their mobile telephones or put them in flight or safe mode.

We are looking at the issue of adult literacy and considerable progress has been made in Ireland on making our education system more accessible for our citizens over the years. It is a major concern that up to one sixth of Irish adults has difficulty understanding basic written text because literacy is fundamental in enabling a person to participate fully in all aspects of our society. To assist us in looking at this issue we have the National Adult Literacy Agency, represented today by Ms Inez Bailey and accompanied by Olive Phelan. Some of her colleagues are in the Visitors Gallery. I invite Ms Bailey to make her presentation to the committee.