Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is great to be able to see people face to face in the committee. We have been used to seeing each other on screens for a long time, so it is great to have the opportunity to meet face to face in public.

Today, we are continuing our pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill 2020. After this meeting we will suspend for 15 minutes for our private meeting on correspondence. Apologies for his absence have been received from Deputy Duffy.

We are joined remotely by the witnesses, Mr. Dualta Ó Broin, head of public policy in Facebook Ireland Limited, and Mr. Ronan Costello, senior manager of public policy in Twitter. Their opening statements have been circulated to members. I will invite our witnesses to make their opening statements and then members will be invited to ask questions. Members' questions and answers will be limited to five minutes.

On privilege, members attending from their Oireachtas offices are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their participation in this meeting. This means they have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything they say at the meeting. For witnesses attending remotely, there are some limitations to parliamentary privilege and they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as a person who is physically present. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that members must be physically present within the confines or place at which Parliament has chosen to sit, Leinster House or the Convention Centre Dublin, in order to participate in public meetings. Witnesses and members 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 a person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. The opening statements submitted to the committee will be published on the committee's website after this meeting.

I invite Mr. Ó Broin to make his opening statement on behalf of Facebook Ireland Limited.