Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everybody to the meeting. Apologies have been received from Deputies Denise Mitchell and David Stanton, and Senator Eileen Flynn. As I am the only person in the room, and I will not forget, I will skip the piece on sanitisation. Before we hear from our witnesses, we have some business to attend to regarding the rules around privilege. I remind members that they must be in the Leinster House complex in order to attend this meeting. If any member attempts to participate from outside Leinster House, I will ask him or her to leave the meeting. I remind witnesses that as they are giving their evidence from outside Leinster House, they may not have the same privilege as if they were in Leinster House. They may think it is appropriate to take legal advice on this matter. They are again reminded that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or damage the good name of any person. If I indicate that I believe a witness is breaking this rule, he or she must stop.

The first business is the approval of the minutes of the committee meeting held on 7 October 2021. These minutes have been approved in the virtual private session but this must be done again in public session for procedural reasons. Are the minutes of the meeting of 7 October 2021 agreed to? Agreed.

Before we hear from our witnesses, I suggest that we publish the opening statements. Is it agreed to publish the opening statements from Travellers In Prison Initiative, Irish Penal Reform Trust, the Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities, the Irish Prison Service, the Probation Service and the City of Dublin Education and Training Board on the committee website? Agreed.

We have witnesses from six organisations with us today. The meeting will be held in two sessions, with the first session focused on the non-governmental organisations, NGOs, and to conclude at 3 p.m., followed by a five minute break. The second session will focus on the official bodies and the meeting will conclude at 4 p.m. I will be strict on everybody in terms of time because we have a number of witnesses and we need to allow for a good session of questions. In terms of format for the meeting, we will hear the opening statements, following which I will allow questions from members. There may be time for a second round of questions. There is no limit to the number of questions members' can ask. In the first round, each member will have five minutes to ask questions. I will go around the house again, time permitting.

I welcome the Ms Anne Costello, programme co-ordinator and Ms Maria Joyce, co-ordinator of the National Traveller Women's Forum and chairperson of Travellers In Prison Initiative; Ms Fíona Ní Chinnéide, executive director, Irish Penal Reform Trust; and Mr. Barry Owens, operations manager, Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities. The witnesses have approximately five minutes to make their opening statements. We will get to the meat of what is within those statements through the questioning process. We need to have as robust a questioning process as possible.

I now invite Ms Costello to make her opening statement.