Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Good afternoon, I welcome everyone to this meeting of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Today's meeting will be split into two 90-minute sessions to discuss homelessness and follow up on a report on a number of issues related to homelessness and housing, published by the committee last year. For the first session we are joined by officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive and Cork City Council. In the second session we will engage with Alone, the Cork Simon Community, Dublin Town and the National One Parent Family Alliance. For this session we are joined in person by Mr. David Kelly, Ms Rosemarie Tobin, and Ms Jennifer Peyton from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; by Ms Mary Hayes and Mr. John Durkan from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE; and by Mr. Brian Geaney, Mr. Niall Ó Donnabháin and Ms Aileen O'Brien from Cork City Council. Mr. Nicky Carroll from Cork City Council also joins us online.

As it is a 90-minute session, I ask members and witnesses to keep the interactions to five minutes each and to be direct with their questions and answers so that we can get through more issues.

Before we commence, I will read a note on privilege. 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. Members and witnesses are expected not to abuse the privilege they enjoy and it is my duty, as Chair, to ensure 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. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction. 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. 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.

The opening statements that were submitted to the committee will be published on the committee website after the meeting. I would appreciate if witnesses kept their opening statements to five minutes each. That would help us. We will hear them in the following order: Mr. Kelly from the Department, Ms Hayes from the DRHE and then Mr. Geaney from Cork City Council.