Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our witnesses for this session on the overall fiscal and monetary position. We are joined from committee room 1 by the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Gabriel Makhlouf, and by Mr. Mark Cassidy, director of economics and statistics at the Central Bank. We are also joined by Mr. Frank O'Connor, director of funding and debt management at the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA. I thank them all for joining us.

I advise the witnesses that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. Witnesses are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and are 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.

I call on Mr. Makhlouf to make his opening statement and ask him to limit himself to five minutes as his statement has been circulated in advance.