Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I will draw attention to the mobile phone notice. I ask members to take out their mobile phones, squash them, switch them off and break them up. Every speaker should know each other by now but we would appreciate it if members say their names before they speak, especially if they are outside the committee room. Apologies have been received from Deputies John McGuinness and Pearse Doherty.

I welcome members and viewers who may be watching our proceedings on Oireachtas TV to the second meeting of the committee today. The notice on privilege is the same one we have observed previously. We cannot use our privilege to malign somebody outside the room; we all know the story about it. Parliamentary privilege is extended to apply to the utterances of members participating online in a committee meeting when their participation is from within the parliamentary precincts. Otherwise, they do not have that same power.