Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are delighted to have the officials from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media with us to commence the committee's pre-legislative scrutiny of the online safety and media regulation Bill. It is a hugely important piece of work we are endeavouring to do, perhaps one of the most important of this Dáil term.

I thank the officials from the broadcasting and media division of the Department for joining us today in committee room 2. We are meeting remotely and adhering to restrictions of level 5. I welcome Ms Triona Quill, principal officer, and her colleague, Mr. Ciarán Shanley, assistant principal officer from the Department.

The format of the meeting is such that I will invite the officials attending on behalf of the Department to make their opening statement, which will be followed by questions from members of the committee. Members are reminded of the fact they have been given a speaking slot and have five minutes for questions and answers. I ask them to stick to that as tightly as possible as we have a very definite time slot of two hours for this meeting. The secretariat has circulated the time slot for speaking and we will go with that as closely as we can.

Members must be in the precincts of Leinster House to participate in this meeting. If a member is not physically in the precincts of Leinster House, I will have to ask him or her to leave the meeting, but I do not believe that pertains to anybody participating today.

Witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of a person or entity. If witnesses' statements are potentially defamatory in relation to any identifiable person or entity, the witness will be directed to discontinue his or her remarks. It is imperative that witnesses comply with any such direction. As our witnesses today are attending remotely from outside the Leinster House campus, they should note that there are some limitations on parliamentary privilege and, as such, they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as a witness physically present does.

I again remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of Leinster House in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where they are not adhering to that constitutional requirement. I ask members and witnesses to identify themselves when contributing for the benefit of Debates Office staff preparing the Official Report. Please keep microphones on mute when not contributing to reduce background noise and feedback. I ask members to use the button to raise their hands if they wish to make a contribution. I remind those joining the meeting to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent mode or, better again, switched off.

On that note, and with all the boring housekeeping rules and regulations put to one side, we will get to the real crux of the meeting. I again welcome Ms Quill and Mr. Shanley and thank them for taking the time to appear before the committee. I ask Ms Quill to proceed with her presentation. We will then move to questions from members.