Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everyone to this morning's meeting. We have received apologies from Deputies Carroll MacNeill and Verona Murphy. If attending in the committee room, members are asked to exercise personal responsibility and protect themselves and others against the risk of contracting Covid-19. Members of the committee attending remotely must do so from within the precincts of the Parliament due to the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings, members must be physically present within the confines of the Parliament.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. McCarthy, is a permanent witness to the committee. He is accompanied this morning by Ms Orla Duane, deputy director of audit at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

This morning we will engage with officials from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to examine both the 2021 Appropriation Account for Vote 29 and the Comptroller and Auditor General's 2021 Report on the Accounts of the Public Services, Chapter 9: Implementation of the National Broadband Plan. We are joined in the committee room by the following officials from the Department: Mr. Mark Griffin, Secretary General and Accounting Officer; Mr. Philip Nugent, assistant secretary of environment protection, circular economy and governance; Mr. Fergal Mulligan, assistant secretary of communications; and principal officers, Mr. Robert Deegan and Ms Louise Carrigan. We are also joined in the committee room by Mr. Ken Cleary, principal officer in the relevant Vote section at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. You are all very welcome. I remind all those in attendance to ensure that your mobile phones are on silent mode or switched off.

Before we start, I wish to explain some limitations to parliamentary privilege, and the practice of the Houses as regards reference witnesses may make to other persons in their evidence. As the witnesses are within the precincts of Leinster House, they are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the presentation they make to the committee. This means that they have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything they say at the meeting. However, they are expected not to abuse this privilege and it is my duty as Cathaoirleach to ensure that this privilege is not abused. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks and it is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

Members are reminded of the provisions within Standing Order 218 that the committee shall refrain from inquiring into the merits of a policy or policies of the Government, or a Minister of the Government, or the merits of the objectives of such policies. Members are also reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not comment on, criticise, 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 now call on the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, for his opening statement.