Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to welcome to the meeting the following representatives of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, Dr. Susan Steele, chair of the authority, Mr. Andrew Kinneen, authority member, and Mr. Micheál O'Mahony, chief scientific officer, who all appearing remotely. You are all very welcome to the meeting this morning. We received your opening statement and it has already been circulated to members. We are limited on time due to Covid-19 safety restrictions. The committee has agreed that the opening statement will be taken as read so that we can use the full session for questions and answers. All opening statements are published on the Oireachtas website, and publicly available.

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 in relation to 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 committee meeting who are in locations outside the parliamentary precincts are asked to note that the constitutional protections afforded to those participating from within the parliamentary precincts do not extend to them. No clear guidance can be given on whether or the extent to which participation is covered by the absolute privilege of a statutory nature.

I now invite questions from members. Deputy Collins was first to indicate.