Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this meeting is to have an engagement with a number of stakeholders that have made written submissions to assist the committee on the topic of victims' testimony in cases of rape and sexual assault. I welcome all of the witnesses to the meeting today. We are joined by Ms Caroline Counihan, BL, legal policy director from the Rape Crisis Network Ireland, RCNI; Ms Kathrina Bentley, CEO, and Ms Andrea McDermott from Men's Aid; Ms Maeve Lewis, CEO, and Ms Deirdre Kenny, advocacy director from One in Four; and Mr. Dara Hayes, BL, and Ms Fiona Murphy, SC, from the Bar of Ireland. We are also joined from the Department of Justice by Ms Ciara Carberry, principal officer, criminal justice legislation and Mr. Deaglán Ó Briain, principal officer, criminal justice policy. The committee did receive submissions from other organisations and I will refer to those organisations later.

I invite witnesses attending remotely to unmute their devices to allow the sound feed into the committee room and to check if they can hear me. Is that all okay? Yes.

When we begin to engage, I ask members and witnesses to mute their microphones when not contributing so that we do not pick up any background noise or feedback. I also ask that they use the appropriate button to raise their hand when they wish to contribute. I ask all those in attendance to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent or switched off.

Before we hear the opening statements, I wish to advise the witnesses of the following points in relation to parliamentary privilege. All witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that 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 or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks and it is imperative that they comply with any such direction. For witnesses attending remotely outside of the Leinster House campus, there are some limitations to parliamentary privilege. As such they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as do witnesses physically present.

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 House or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. For members who are participating remotely, I ask them to keep their device on mute until they are invited to speak. When they are speaking I ask that where possible, they have their camera switched on and be mindful that we are in public session. In addition, I would like to remind members of the constitutional requirement that members must be physically present within the confines of the place which Parliament has chosen to sit, namely, Leinster House, in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where they are not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate in this meeting from outside the precincts of Leinster House will be refused.

I will invite each organisation in turn to make an opening statement to a maximum of five minutes because we only have a two-hour window for the meeting. Once all of the opening statements have been delivered, I will then call on the members of the committee, in the order that they indicate to me, to put their questions. In the time remaining, there will be an opportunity for members to ask supplementary questions. I ask attendees to note that the duration of the meeting is limited, therefore the times must be strictly adhered to. I ask everyone to be focused in their contributions. There is a time clock to ensure that we do that.

I now call on each organisation to make its opening statement in the following order: RCNI, Men's Aid, One in Four, the Bar of Ireland and the Department of Justice. I invite Ms Counihan from RCNI to make her opening statement. She has five minutes.