David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Our meeting today is scheduled to deal with two matters: the Comptroller and Auditor General's report of 2016, chapter 3, on the cost of bank stabilisation measures at the end of 2016; and the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, IBRC, liquidation. We are joined by the following officials from the Department of Finance: Mr. Des Carville, Assistant Secretary, head of the shareholding and advisory division; Mr. Gary Tobin, Assistant Secretary, banking division; Mr. Scott Rankin, deputy head of the shareholding and advisory division; Mr. Gary Hynds, principal officer, equivalent, shareholding and advisory division; Mr. Eoin Dorgan, principal officer, banking division; and Mr. David Tuohy, shareholding and advisory division. They are all very welcome.

I remind members, witnesses and those in the Public Gallery that all mobile phones must be switched off.

I advise the 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 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 nor make charges against any person or entity, by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

Members are reminded of the provisions within Standing Order 186 that the committee shall also refrain from enquiring into the merits of a policy or policies of the Government or a Minister of the Government or the merits of the objectives of such policies.

There is an item we wish to bring to witnesses' attention before we proceed. There were a number of items of correspondence this week on today's meeting that the committee noted earlier. One was received on Tuesday from the Department in regard to our consideration of the liquidation of IBRC. The Department advises us that the matter is now before the High Court. As a result, the Department informed us it could not discuss the liquidation and that because of the case, the liquidators would not be in attendance.

However, we wrote to the liquidators again yesterday, insisting that it should attend, but it has written to say that it is adhering to its legal advice and cannot attend at present. This will be an issue of concern for some members, so I propose that if members want to raise issues on those items of correspondence as part of their contributions they can be given extra time and latitude. We will not count it as a separate item but will deal with it in the contributions they make. Is that agreed?