John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, and her officials to the meeting. I thank them for the briefing material which they provided and has been circulated to the members.

This meeting has been convened to consider the Revised Estimate for Vote 37 - employment affairs and social protection, which was referred by the Dáil to the committee with the instruction to report back to the Dáil. While the committee has no role in actually approving the Estimate, there is an opportunity for the committee to make the process more transparent and to engage in a meaningful way on relevant performance issues.

I propose to proceed with the Minister and ask her to make her opening statements, after which I will afford members an opportunity to raise issues with the Minister.