Mr. Patrick Smyth:

Ba mhaith liom míle buíochas a ghabháil le baill an choiste as an deis seo dul i ngleic leo inniu. Tá sé i gceist agam faisnéis a leagan amach maidir le bunú Tusla agus lenár dtiomantas ár ndualgais faoi Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla a chomhlíonadh chun an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn agus cearta teanga ár n-úsáideoirí seirbhíse a chosaint. I apologise for being unable to continue in Irish, but the standard of my spoken Irish is not good enough to enable me to do so. I will read the opening statement in English, if that is okay. I am joined today by Ms Fiona McDonnell, who is Tusla's national service director for the regulation of children's services, including early years services; Mr. Noel Kelly, who is Tusla's director of education welfare services; Mr. Alan Breen, who is Tusla's head of communications; and Ms Amanda Pathe of Tusla's parliamentary affairs unit. I am the interim CEO of Tusla. As a brief introduction, I remind the committee that Tusla was established in 2014 on foot of a recommendation made in 2012 by the task force on the Child and Family Support Agency.