Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Apologies have been received from Deputies Cairns and Ward. Deputy Cronin will substitute for Deputy Ward. Apologies have also been received from Senator McGreehan.

Today we will engage with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, regarding foster care issues. The Minister is joined by his officials, Ms Lara Hynes, acting assistant secretary, and Ms Marie Kennedy, principal officer. They are very welcome to the meeting.

I will go through the regular housekeeping matters. I advise anyone who is attending online via MS Teams that the chat function should only be used to make us aware of an urgent matter and should not be used to make general comments or statements. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where he or she is not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate from outside the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting. In this regard, I ask members who are participating via MS Teams to confirm they are on the grounds of the Leinster House complex before they contribute.

In advance of inviting the Minister to deliver his opening statement, I advise him of the following in respect of parliamentary privilege. Witnesses who are participating from the committee room are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

The Minister will have five minutes for his opening statement, which will be followed by questions and answers. Before I invite him to make his opening statement, I wish to express how happy we are to have Ms Anita Gibbons, our clerk, back with us. We are all delighted to see her here. We also offer a sincere thanks to Ms Maeve Ní Liatháin, who stood in for Ms Gibbons for the past number of months. It feels like we are back to normal now.