Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have received apologies from Senator Nikki Bradley. The agenda item for consideration this morning is child poverty and deprivation. From Social Justice Ireland, SJI, we are joined by Ms Susanne Rogers, research and policy analyst. From the Children's Rights Alliance, CRA, we have Dr. Naomi Feely, policy director, and Dr. Siobhán O'Reilly, senior education officer. From Early Childhood Ireland, ECI, we are joined by Ms Teresa Heeney, CEO, and Ms Valerie McArdle, policy officer. From the National One Parent Family Alliance, NOPFA, we are joined by Ms Karen Kiernan and Ms Louise Bayliss. Ms Bayliss is also head of social justice and policy at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. You are all very welcome and thank you for taking the time to join us. Representatives of Pobal were invited to attend the meeting but due to other commitments, were not available to attend.

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss with stakeholders the challenges facing children living or at risk of living in poverty. As we know that too many children in Ireland are living below the poverty line, this is a really important topic.

Before we begin, I have a few housekeeping matters to go through. I would like to advise you all 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 precincts will be asked to leave the meeting. In this regard, I ask any member partaking via MS Teams to confirm prior to making his or her contribution to the meeting that he or she is on the grounds of the Leinster House campus.

In advance of inviting our witnesses to deliver their opening statements, I want to advise them of the following in relation to parliamentary privilege. You are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the presentation you are about to make to the committee. This means that you have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything you say at the meeting. However, you are expected not to abuse this privilege and it is my duty as Cathaoirleach to ensure this privilege is not abused. Therefore, if your statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity you will be directed to discontinue your remarks. It is imperative that you comply with any such direction. Witnesses will all be allocated three minutes speaking time to deliver their opening statements and that will be followed by a question-and-answer session from our members, who are all female this morning, but I assure the witnesses we have some males on our committee as well. I will call on the witnesses in the following order: Ms Susanne Rogers, followed by Dr. Naomi Feely, Ms Teresa Heeney and Ms Louise Bayliss. I will be popping out at some stage because I have a question in the Dáil Chamber but my Vice Chair, Deputy Aisling Dempsey, will be taking over for that, so there will be a little changing of the guard, as they say. I now invite Ms. Rogers to deliver her opening statement.