James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will now commence the second part of the meeting. I welcome the witnesses to our meeting. I will give them a moment to take up their positions. I see Dr. Ryan and Ms Dixon. They are both very welcome to the session. I believe Ms Morgan is also joining us from the Data Protection Commission, DPC. I see her smiling in the corner. I thank all three witnesses for their attendance and participation in this session. I look forward to the engagement. I remind the witnesses to unmute their devices when they are speaking to the committee and when they are not contributing they should mute themselves.We have established that everyone can hear me. I will leave the housekeeping at that. We are all used to it at this stage.

This is session 2 of our meeting, which is to have an engagement with a number of stakeholders who have made a written submission to assist the committee in its consideration of the general data protection regulation. Before the opening statements are taken I will give some quick advices on 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 a person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in respect of an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that witnesses comply with any such direction. For witnesses attending remotely, outside the Leinster House campus, which is the case with the three witnesses in this session - all the witnesses today are remote - there are some limitations to parliamentary privilege. As such, they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as a witness who is physically present. There we are, the pandemic has us meeting remotely, but at least we can meet. The witnesses should be mindful that the privilege does not extend to the same degree as it would ordinarily.

Members are advised of the same. Rather than read the long version of the caution to members, I will take it as read, because I know they have been to several meetings at this stage and they are aware of the rules on privilege and parliamentary procedure and good practice. I remind members to avoid commentary on any matters relating to current proceedings which are sub judice, as that might prejudice the outcomes.

The format of the meeting is that I will invite each organisation to make an opening statement of a maximum of five minutes. Once the opening statements have been delivered I will then call on the members of the committee in the order that they indicate. There will be one round of questions at any rate and we will see how we get on before I talk about supplementary questions. I will call on the speakers in the following order: Dr. Ryan and then Ms Dixon. They have five minutes each. If Ms Dixon wishes to share time with her colleague, she is welcome to do so, or she may wish to take all the time and her colleague can respond to questions as they are asked. It is her prerogative. I will go to Dr. Ryan without further ado. We are mindful of time as we are, unfortunately, subject to a strict timeline because of the pandemic. We have a two-hour cap on the time for meetings. Dr. Ryan is very welcome to this forum. We are delighted to have him with us. I look forward to hearing what he has to say. He has five minutes to make his opening statement.