Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Members are reminded of the long-standing 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.

This meeting has been convened to consider the Revised Estimate for Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment which was referred to the select committee by order of the Dáil on 14 December 2017. The gross allocation for 2018 which includes a capital carryover of €6 million is €587 million. I welcome the Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten; the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Kyne, who will be joining us shortly, and their officials whom I thank for the briefing material provided which has been circulated to members of the committee. I thank the Minister and his officials for the open and constructive dialogue with the committee secretariat in developing the briefing document for the meeting.

The committee has agreed to proceed programme by programme. At the outset of the consideration of each programme I will ask the Minister or the Minister of State to give a high-level overview of it, including the pressures likely to impact on the Department's performance, and related expenditure in 2018. Members will then be invited to put their questions about particular subheads. I will refer to the briefing document prepared by the committee secretariat to guide our consideration of the Revised Estimate. We will start with programme A, communications, which is dealt with on page 7 of the committee secretariat's briefing document. The programme comprises 75% of the Vote's adjusted gross allocation. I invite the Minister to make a short statement on it.