Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, and his officials to the meeting and apologise for coming to them considerably later than anticipated. We are doing our best with time. I will not go through the statement on privilege if that is okay. The Minister has sat through enough meetings at this stage to have a rough idea of where we stand in that respect. I ask him to make his opening statement and confine his contribution to five minutes to allow as much time as possible for questions and answers. I thank him again for his forbearance and apologise for being late.