John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No. 5 on the agenda is engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland. Professor Philip Lane, Governor of the Central Bank, and his colleagues are very welcome.

I wish to advise witnesses 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 the committee. 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, persons or 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 members should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the House or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I invite Professor Lane to make his opening statement. It has been agreed that in order to structure the meeting properly, the tracker mortgage issue will be dealt with first.

Perhaps as part of his opening statement, he might just deal with that issue and then we can come back to the rest. It might make for better management of the meeting.