Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The agenda for today's meeting centres on the area of citizens' rights in Northern Ireland post Brexit. As members will be aware, our meeting will be broken up into two sessions.

I need to go through my usual spiel about privilege at the start of the meeting, so please bear with me. Witnesses giving evidence from within the parliamentary precincts are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they give to a committee. This means that a witness has a full defence in any defamation action for anything said at a committee meeting. However, witnesses are expected not to abuse this privilege and may be directed to cease giving evidence on an issue at the Chair's direction. Witnesses should follow the direction of the Chair in this regard and are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that, as is reasonable, no adverse commentary should be made against an identifiable third person or entity. Witnesses who are to give evidence from a location outside the parliamentary precincts are asked to note that they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as a witness giving evidence from within the parliamentary precincts and may consider it appropriate to take legal advice on the matter. Privilege against defamation does not apply to the publication by witnesses outside of the proceedings held by the committee of any matters arising from the proceedings.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I also remind members that they are allowed to participate in this meeting only if they are physically located on the Leinster House campus. In this regard I ask all members to confirm prior to making their initial contributions that they are on the grounds of the Leinster House complex.

Our first witness in the first session, from 3 p.m. until 4 p.m., is Mr. Daniel Holder, deputy director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice. Mr. Holder, I now call on you to make your opening statement to the committee. Thank you very much for coming here.