Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We resume our meeting now and I apologise for the technical issues that delayed us. We now turn to the main item on our agenda which is our second discussion on the parliamentary budget cycle and the committee’s considerations for submitting our own prebudget submissions to the Ministers for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform in advance of next autumn’s budget. In this regard the committee advertised for public submissions and I again thank those stakeholder groups and individuals who submitted same. These will be of great benefit to us in our deliberations.

At our meeting this morning we will hear from two such stakeholder groups with insights in submissions from The Wheel, which is Ireland’s umbrella association of community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises. We will also hear from Community Gardens Ireland, the representative body for more than 100 community garden and allotment groups and associations throughout the country.

The Wheel is well-placed to assess collaborative learnings and there were no doubt plenty throughout the pandemic as State agencies interlinked with members of The Wheel to deliver services of immense benefit to our citizens. The insights of The Wheel as to how budget 2022 will take shape will be invaluable in our considerations.

On Community Gardens Ireland, it was greatly uplifting to see the inventiveness of community gardeners in sharing resources and exchanging ideas across social media platforms throughout the pandemic. The benefits to people, physically and mentally, are immense as are the environmental advantages associated with allotments. As the climate change report published by the Local Government Management Agency in January 2020 outlined, there are more than 2,400 local authority allotments and 97 community gardens throughout Ireland. The insight of Community Gardens Ireland on how this community is growing and how best to support it will be useful. In this regard I welcome Ms Maeve Foreman, chairperson of Commuter Gardens Ireland; Mr. Ivan Cooper, director of policy at The Wheel; Ms Deirdre Garvey chief executive officer of The Wheel; and, attending remotely from outside of the Leinster House complex, Mr. Donal McCormack, co-chairperson of Community Gardens Ireland. They are all very welcome this morning.

Turning briefly to matters of privilege, members of this committee and of the Houses have absolute privilege in respect of statements made in either House of the Oireachtas or before the committee. By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses present on the precincts of Leinster House are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they are required to give to a committee. Witnesses participating remotely from outside the precincts of Leinster House may not be protected by absolute privilege and should therefore exercise caution in terms of utterances at this committee. If, in the course of committee proceedings, they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to do so, they are entitled thereafter only to 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 are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against a Member of either House of the Oireachtas, a person outside of the House or an official by name in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I now call on Ms Deirdre Garvey, chief executive of The Wheel, to make her opening remarks.