Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, all 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 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 any person or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

As this is the first meeting of the new Committee of Public Accounts, there are many new members and also some new Deputies. Therefore, I invite Mr. McCarthy to give a short overview of his role and ongoing work that may be of interest to the committee. It will be followed by questions and answers.