Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Apologies have been received from Deputy Troy and Senator Hoey.

Parliamentary privilege is considered to apply to the utterances of members participating online in a committee meeting when their participation is from within the parliamentary precincts. There can be no assurances in relation to participation online from outside the parliamentary precincts and members should be mindful of this when contributing. This committee discusses dying, including suicide. Support information can be found on the committee's web page.

Our first agenda item is to show two short video submissions from Mr. Brendan Clarke. Mr. Clarke was invited to appear before the committee but, very sadly, died before this was possible.

On behalf of committee members and the secretariat, I would like to extend our sincere condolences to his family. We are grateful that he was able to share his experience with us. I ask that the video would be shown. I again thank the family for helping this to happen.

We have a technical problem with the sound. In the absence of the video, we will have to move on to the next item on the agenda. We will go back to the video when the sound problem has been resolved.

I welcome the witnesses who are here today to discuss the topic of protecting vulnerable individuals from coercion. From the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland we have Dr. Siobhán McHale, Dr. Eric Kelleher, Dr. Anita Ambikapathy; from the National Suicide Research Foundation we have Dr. Eve Griffin, chief executive officer, and Professor Ella Arensman, chief scientist, and Dr. Léopold Vanbellingen, research fellow with the European Institute of Bioethics. We are very grateful to them for coming here today to share their knowledge with the committee.

The format for this meeting is that members will ask questions after the witnesses have given their opening statements. A member can ask an individual witness a question or address a question to all the witnesses more generally. I ask in advance that all the witnesses would keep their opening statements to the agreed five minutes. They will see the clocks throughout the room. They have five minutes for their opening statement. There will be a further seven minutes shared between members and witnesses for questions and answers. They will see the clock ticking down all the time. I invite Dr. McHale to please give her opening statement.