Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Good afternoon. We have one piece of housekeeping before I bring in witnesses, namely, the draft minutes for the meetings of 9 February 2021. Can I take it that the draft minutes of our last public joint meeting and the decisions taken at our private meeting last Tuesday, 9 February, regarding today's meeting are agreed? Agreed.

I want to correct the public record arising from information given by the HSE to the committee at its meeting of 2 February on the organisations that attend the Age Action Alliance monthly meetings. The HSE has now confirmed that Care Champions, Sage Advocacy and the Irish Association of Social Workers are not among the groups invited to attend the monthly meeting. The initial response from the HSE was that these groups were part of the alliance and clearly this is not the case.

I welcome our witnesses on the issue of A Regulatory Framework for Adult Safeguarding. The safety and protection of vulnerable people should be central to a well-functioning society and we welcome the work of the Law Reform Commission, LRC, which is examining what is needed to have a comprehensive framework in place. We got a copy of their document this morning and I welcome it. It helps to clarify the situation. I welcome from the LRC, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, president; Mr. Raymond Byrne, commissioner; Dr. Andrea Mulligan, commissioner; Ms Rebecca Coen, director of research; and Ms Leanne Caulfield, principal researcher.

Before the opening statements, I point out to the witnesses that there is uncertainty if parliamentary privilege will apply to evidence from a location outside the parliamentary precincts of Leinster House. Therefore, if witnesses are directed by me to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter, they must respect that direction.