Dr. Sharon McGuinness:

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend today. I am the chief executive officer of the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, and I am joined today by my colleague, Dr. Adrienne Duff, programme manager of the Irish National Accreditation Board, INAB, and by Ms Bríd Burke, our senior accreditation officer. We welcome the opportunity to be here this morning. We have submitted a written document and will summarise that now.

INAB is the national body in Ireland with responsibility for the accreditation of laboratories, certification bodies and inspection bodies. It is also part of a wider international accreditation network. INAB was established in 1985 and has operated as a committee of the Health and Safety Authority since 2014. As an operating unit, its role was transferred to the HSA under the Industrial Development (Forfás Dissolution) Act 2014, which also dissolved Forfás as its original parent body at that time. The committee's invitation to us today arises from the second scoping inquiry report that includes references to INAB and MedLab Pathology Limited. I will ask my colleague, Dr. Adrienne Duff, to continue the presentation.