Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Apologies have been received from Deputy Verona Murphy. Deputies MacSharry and Devlin are tied up with some parliamentary duties but hopefully they will join us later.

I welcome everyone to the meeting. Due to the current situation in respect of Covid-19, only the clerk to the committee, support staff and I are in the committee room. Members of the committee are attending remotely from within the precincts of Leinster House. This is due to the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings members must be physically present within the confines of the place where the Parliament has chosen to sit, namely, Leinster House or the convention centre. I will ask members to confirm their location before contributing to ensure they are complying with that constitutional requirement. The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, is a permanent witness to the committee and is attending remotely.

Today we will engage with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs. We will examine the following from the Comptroller and Auditor General's appropriation accounts for 2019: Vote 27 – International Co-operation; and Vote 28 – Foreign Affairs and Trade. We will also deal with chapter 8 of the Comptroller and Auditor General's Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2018 - control of humanitarian assistance funding.

We are joined remotely from within the precincts of Leinster House by the following officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs: Mr. Niall Burgess, Secretary General, Mr. John Conlan, chief financial officer and director general of human resources, and Mr. Ruairí de Búrca, director general of Irish Aid. We are also joined remotely from outside the precincts of Leinster House by Mr. Brendan Rogers, deputy Secretary General, and Ms Barbara Jones, director general of corporate services. We are joined remotely from outside the precincts of Leinster House by the following officials from the Vote section in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Mr. Brian O'Malley, principal officer, and Ms Victoria Cahill, assistant principal. They are all very welcome. I thank them and the rest of the staff from the Department of Foreign Affairs for the briefing material they have supplied for this meeting.

When we begin to engage, I will ask members and witnesses to mute themselves when not contributing so no background noise or feedback will be picked up. As usual, I remind all of those in attendance to have their mobile phones turned off or on silent mode.

Before we start, I wish to explain some limitations regarding parliamentary privilege and the practices of the Houses as regards references witnesses may make to other persons in their evidence. The evidence of witnesses physically present or witnesses who give evidence from within the parliamentary precincts is protected, pursuant to both the Constitution and statute, by absolute privilege. However, a number of today's witnesses are giving their evidence remotely from a place outside of the parliamentary precincts and, as such, may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as a witness physically present does. Such witnesses have already been advised of this and may have thought it appropriate to take legal advice on this matter.

Members are reminded of the provisions of Standing Order 218 that the committee shall refrain from inquiring into the merits of a policy or policies of the Government, or a Minister of the Government, or the merits of the objectives of such policies. Members are also reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against any person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

To assist the broadcasting and debates services, I ask that members direct their questions to a specific witness. If the question is not directed to a specific witness, I ask the witness responding to state his or her name when first contributing.