Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Mark Fielding, chief executive of ISME, to discuss measures to support business growth and job creation and retention in town centres and villages. I thank him for attending. This is probably his third or fourth appearance at a meeting of the committee in the past couple of months. I appreciate this and his input on this very important issue, on which we hope to issue a report in the next couple of months.
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. If they are directed by it to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to so do, 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 any person or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.
I invite Mr. Fielding to make his presentation.