Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of today's meeting is to meet with the Ombudsman, Mr. Peter Tyndall, to discuss his examination and findings in his update for 2018 on the direct provision system and his commentary piece that predated it, namely, The Ombudsman and Direct Provision: The Story so Far. The Ombudsman is joined by Mr. Sean Garvey, principal officer, and Mr. Paul Mallen, assistant principal officer, who are both attached to his office. They are all very welcome here this morning to the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality. I will shortly invite Mr. Tyndall to make his opening statement.

Before I do that, I remind members and witnesses to please turn off their mobile phones. I must also address the issue of privilege. I draw the attention of witnesses to this matter. Witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they give to the committee. However, if they are directed by it to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to do so, 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.

All members should be aware that under the salient rulings of the Chair, they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I invite Mr. Tyndall to make his opening statement.