Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Apologies have been received from Senator Bradley.

At a private meeting on 29 May, the joint committee agreed the minutes of the meeting of 22 May 2025.

The agenda item for consideration this morning is engagement with the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Deputy Foley, on the priority topics and issues facing the Department. The purpose of the meeting is to give the Minister the opportunity to provide some insight for our members into priority topics facing the Department that fall under the children and equality remit. Accompanying the Minister are: Ms Laura McGarrigle, assistant secretary; Dr. Anne Marie Brooks, assistant secretary; Ms Carol Baxter, assistant secretary; Mr. David Byrne, principal officer; and Mr. John Gilbane, principal officer. They are all welcome to the meeting.

As this is our first engagement with the Minister, I take the opportunity to say that the members of the committee are looking forward to working closely with her. We have the opportunity to effect change and influence legislation that will help to ensure that our systems of care, support and protection are effective, compassionate and grounded in the rights and dignity of every child and individual in Irish society. I think members will agree that we look forward to ongoing engagement. I thank the Minister and her team for already engaging with us so well, and especially for giving us a briefing last week on the announcements on core funding. It was much appreciated.

Before we begin, I have a few housekeeping matters to go through. I advise members that the chat function on MS Teams should only be used to make the team on site aware of any technical issues or urgent matters that may arise and should not be used to make general comments or statements during the meeting.

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 members to participate where they are 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 participating via MS Teams to confirm, prior to making their contributions, that they are on the grounds of the Leinster House campus.

In advance of the Minister delivering her opening statement, I advise her of the following as regards parliamentary privilege: witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the presentation they make to the committee. This means 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 this privilege is not abused. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in respect of an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative they comply with any such direction.

The Minister has been allocated seven minutes to deliver her opening statement, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the members.