Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will now commence pre-legislative scrutiny of the sea-fisheries (amendment) Bill. I welcome the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, Dr. Cecil Beamish, assistant secretary at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for fisheries, Ms Josephine Kelly, principal officer, sea fisheries policy and management division, and Mr. John Kinsella, principal officer, legal services division. The officials join us remotely from a witness room in Kildare House. They are all very welcome to the meeting.

We have received the Minister's opening statement and briefing material, copies of which have been circulated to members. As we are limited on time due to Covid-19 safety restrictions, the committee has agreed that the opening statement may be taken as read and the full session will be used for questions and answers. All opening statements are published on the Oireachtas website and are publicly available.

Before we begin, I have an important notice regarding parliamentary privilege. Witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. However, if they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. Participants in the meeting from a location outside the parliamentary precincts are asked to note that the constitutional protections afforded to those participating within the parliamentary precincts do not extend to them. No clear guidance can be given on whether, or the extent to which, their participation is covered by absolute privilege of a statutory nature.

The legislative proposal we are discussing is a hugely important issue for the fisheries sector. Before I invite questions from members, I ask the Minister to comment briefly on how he sees the situation for the sector at this time and the necessity for this legislation.