Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Apologies have been received from Senator Bradley and Deputy Charles Ward. The joint committee, at a private meeting on 3 July, agreed the minutes of a private meeting on 29 May and of the public meetings on 12, 16 and 23 June 2025. The agenda item for consideration today is engagement with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. We are joined this morning by Ms Kate Duggan, chief executive officer, Mr. Gerry Hone, interim director for services and integration, Ms Rosarii Mannion, national director for people and change, and Mr. Pat Smyth, national director for finance and corporate services. They are all very welcome and I congratulate them on the launch of their annual report yesterday.

The purpose of the meeting is to give Tusla the opportunity to provide some insight for members into priority topics and issues facing the organisation. As this is our first engagement with Ms Duggan, I want to say that this committee welcomes the opportunity to work closely with her 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 in Irish society. All of the members will agree with me when I say that we look forward to ongoing engagement with the agency and to working closely with it in the term ahead.

Before we begin, I have a few housekeeping matters to go through. I wish to advise everyone 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 would also like to 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 confines of the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting. In this regard, I ask members participating via MS Teams to confirm that they are on the grounds of the Leinster House campus prior to making a contribution to the meeting.

In advance of inviting our witnesses to deliver their opening statement, I advise them of the following in relation to parliamentary privilege. Witnesses and members are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the presentation they make to the committee. This means that 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 that 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 and it is imperative that they comply with any such direction.