Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Apologies have been received from Senators Pauline O'Reilly and Alice-Mary Higgins. We welcome Senator Lynn Ruane who is substituting for Senator Alice-Mary Higgins. Members have the option of being physically present in the committee room or joining the meeting via Microsoft Teams from their Leinster House offices but they may not participate in the meeting from outside the parliamentary precincts. I ask members joining on Teams to mute their microphones when not making a contribution and to use the raised hand function to indicate. All those present in the committee room are asked to exercise personal responsibility in respect of protection against the risk of contracting Covid-19.

I welcome the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar. I also welcome from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Fiona O'Dea, principal officer in the company law review unit, and Ms Helena Quilty, assistant principal in the enterprise strategies unit.

Before we begin, I must read out an important notice regarding parliamentary privilege. Witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they give to the committee. However, if they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they 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 any person or entity in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

I invite the Tánaiste to make his opening statement, after which I will open the floor to members for questions and answers. I am conscious that time is somewhat limited. As we have only an hour, I am going to limit exchanges to six minutes per member to facilitate as many members as possible contributing in that time.