Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Apologies have been received from Senator Maria Byrne.

We will engage with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Mc Hugh, on the interim report on reduced timetables. We will deal with some housekeeping matters in private session afterwards. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I remind members to either turn off their mobile phones or switch them to flight mode as they interfere with the sound and broadcasting systems and make it difficult for the parliamentary reporters to report the proceedings of the meeting. Television coverage and web-streaming would also be adversely affected.

No. 1 on the agenda is, as mentioned, engagement with the Minister on the interim report on reduced timetables. I welcome him on behalf of the committee. Earlier this year it shone a light on a very worrying practice which had been hidden in plain sight for a long period, namely, reduced timetables. We held three stakeholder sessions, at which some of the evidence unveiled was, to be perfectly honest, quite shocking and appalling. While members of the committee welcomed the Minister's announcement yesterday that schools would be required to give formal notification to Tusla of the use of reduced timetables - one of the recommendations we made in the interim report - we will be seeking further information on the announcement and the proposed guidelines for notifications. It was quite ironic that the news was released yesterday prior to our engagement today, but we take it in the spirit in which we hope it was intended. I understand the Minister has to attend the Dáil to take two Topical Issue matters and that his time is tight; therefore, I ask both him and members to be very focused in the questions and answers throughout this engagement.

The format of the meeting will be that I will issue an invitation to the Minister to make an opening statement which will be followed by engagement with committee members. As the Minister is aware, the committee will be publishing his opening statement on its website following the meeting

I remind members of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against any person outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I invite the Minister to make his opening statement.