Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the following officials from the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications: Mr. Paul McDonald, principal officer, waste policy and resource efficiency; and Ms Sorcha Byrne, assistant principal, waste, plastics, remediation and producer responsibility division, who are joining us remotely. They are very welcome. We have received their opening statement, which has been circulated to members. We are limited in our time due to Covid, so the committee has agreed that the opening statement will be taken as read so that the full session can be used for question and answers. The opening statement will be published on the Oireachtas website and will be publicly available.

Before we begin, I want to read an important notice on parliamentary privilege. Witnesses are protected by absolute privilege with respect to the evidence you are to give to the committee. However, if you are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and you continue to do so, you are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of your evidence. You are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and you are asked to respect parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, you should not criticise nor 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 committee meeting who are located outside of the parliamentary precinct are asked to note that the constitutional protection afforded to those participating within the parliamentary precinct does not extend to them. No clear guidance can be given on all whether or the extent to which participation is covered by absolute privilege.

I now invite questions from members. Deputy Leddin asked me to let him in first on this earlier. I will honour my commitment.