Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of today's meeting is to discuss the key priorities and challenges facing Ireland in complying with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with the organisations that made written submissions on the topic. The Clerk of the Seanad has supplied all organisations with a list of the key points from the various submissions which Members wish to discuss.
The format for today's meeting is as set out in the programme supplied to witnesses and Members. The first three groups will each have a ten minute slot to be followed by a question and answer session for approximately 30 minutes. Some groups propose to share their ten minute slot, so to be helpful, I will remind the first speaker when he or she has one minute remaining.
By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. However, if they are directed by it to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to do so, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against a person or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

The first person I call to make a presentation is Dr. Liam Thornton. He has approximately ten minutes and I shall remind him of his time at the nine minute mark. I ask him to proceed and he is most welcome.