Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Professor Aisling Reynolds-Feighan, transport economist at UCD; Mr. Dermot O'Leary, general secretary of the NBRU; Mr. Michael Taft, research officer at Unite; Mr. Willie Noone, transport sector organiser with SIPTU and all of the members of their delegations. I thank them for coming before the joint committee. Opening statements presented by the four groups have been circulated.

By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they are to give to the committee. However, if they are directed by it 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 asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

The subject matter of the meeting is "A Vision for Public Transport in Ireland", which includes the level of State subvention required. I am conscious that we have a number of representatives of trade unions with us. It would be remiss of me, as Chairman, not to point out that the committee has no role, nor can it, in industrial relations matters, particularly when such matters are before the Workplace Relations Commission. I ask delegates and members to bear this in mind when making their remarks.

Opening presentations should not be longer than five minutes. I will start with Professor Reynolds-Feighan who I understand needs to leave before 10 a.m. After hearing the opening statement of each representative, I ask committee members to direct their initial questions to Professor Reynolds-Feighan.