Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 October 2019

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union

Implications for Ireland of the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU in regard to the Agriculture and Food Sectors: Discussion

Photo of Neale RichmondNeale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Paul Kelly, director of Food Drink Ireland, and Mr. Conor Mulvihill from Dairy Industry Ireland. I thank them very much for appearing before the committee again. We appreciate their presence and patience, given that the previous session ran a little over time and we had to go briefly into private session.

Before we begin, I must remind everyone of the rules on privilege. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that 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. 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. If, however, 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 the 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, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

As I explained to our previous guests, a number of committee meetings are taking place in parallel as Wednesday is the busiest day of the week. There have not yet been any votes in the Seanad but there will be in due course. It is always a little fluid, as I am sure our guests will appreciate, but we are very grateful to them both for attending.

I invite Mr. Kelly to make his opening statement.

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