Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everybody to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We are meeting to discuss homelessness and the homelessness report this committee published about 18 months ago. I am delighted to be joined in the committee room by, from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, Ms Mary Hayes, director, and Mr. John Durkan, deputy director. From Threshold, we are joined by Mr. John-Mark McCafferty, CEO, and Ms Ann-Marie O’Reilly, national advocacy manager. From Simon, we are joined by Mr. Wayne Stanley, executive director of Simon Communities, and Mr. Jonathan Shinnors, regional manager for emergency accommodation at Mid-West Simon. We are joined online by Dr. Dermot Kavanagh, who is the CEO of Cork Simon. They are all very welcome. I thank them for taking time out of their busy days to assist the committee.

I will read a quick note on privilege before we start. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the place where the Parliament has chosen to sit, namely, Leinster House, to participate in public meetings. Witnesses attending in the committee room are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their contributions to today's meeting. This means they have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything they say at the meeting. For witnesses attending remotely, there are some limitations to parliamentary privilege and, as such, they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as a person who is physically present in the Leinster House complex does. Members and witnesses are expected not to abuse the privilege they enjoy. It is my duty as Chair to ensure this privilege is not abused. Therefore, if statements are potentially defamatory in respect of an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative people comply with any such direction.

Members and witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect 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.

For the opening statement sequence, I will start with the DRHE, followed by Threshold and then Simon. Members will have about a seven- or eight-minute segment each for them to ask a question and get an answer.

I invite Ms Hayes to make her opening statement on behalf of DRHE.