Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We shall now move on to the afternoon business. We are examining the Appropriation Accounts for 2017: Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General; Vote 5 - Office of the Director Public Prosecutions; and Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor. In case the public thinks otherwise, the witnesses present are not the Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, and Chief State Solicitor, but the Accounting Officers who are responsible. They are not necessarily the legal people involved. We are joined from the Office of the Attorney General by Mr. Damien Moloney, director general, Ms Lynda O'Regan and Mr. David Donnelly. We are joined from the Office of the Director Public Prosecutions by Mr. Barry Donoghue, deputy director of public prosecutions and Accounting Officer, Ms Elizabeth Howlin, Ms Helena Kiely and Mr. Declan Hoban. From the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, we are joined by Ms Maria Browne, Chief State Solicitor. I did not realise until now that she was present. She is joined by Mr. Owen Wilson and Mr. Michael Fallon. It is a bit unusual to have three Accounting Officers here together but they are all in the legal sphere. To help the committee, we decided to have the three groups together. The committee wants to deal with each of the 40 Votes as voted expenditure. We do not have 40 separate meetings so we have to combine some groups.

I remind members, witnesses and those in the Visitors Gallery that all mobile phones must be switched off or switched to airplane mode. Leaving them in silent mode can interfere with the recording system.

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. 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 entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. While we expect witnesses to answer questions put to them clearly and with candour, they can and should expect to be treated fairly and with respect and consideration at all times in accordance with the witness protocol.

We shall start with the opening statement of the Comptroller and Auditor General. I propose that we take the three opening statements together and then move on to questions from members. We will try to deal with this as a group meeting. Since members are not all legal experts, their questions might sometimes stray across two offices. The witnesses know their demarcation lines and can assist us when it comes to answering questions.