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

I welcome our witnesses from the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, to the meeting this afternoon. The witnesses will present virtually to our meeting to provide us with an update on where we are on tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. I welcome Dr. Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer, Mr. Gerry O'Brien, director of health protection division at the Department of Health, and Professor Philip Nolan, president of Maynooth University. During the session I ask Dr. Glynn to direct me to whom he believes should be responding to a question.

Before we hear the opening statement, I need to point out to our witnesses that there is uncertainty about how parliamentary privilege will apply to their evidence from a location outside of the parliamentary precincts of Leinster House. Therefore, if they are directed by me to cease giving evidence on a particular matter they must respect that direction. I invite Dr. Glynn to make his opening remarks and he has five minutes.