Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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We have resumed for the second session of our hearing this morning. We are engaging with Dr. Katriona O'Sullivan and with Women in Research Ireland. I am grateful to both Dr. Katriona O'Sullivan from the department of psychology in Maynooth University and Ms Emily Sheridan, treasurer and web manager of Women in Research Ireland, for joining us in person, and to Dr. Cathy Corcoran, committee member of Women in Research Ireland, who is joining us via Teams. They are all very welcome here.

Before we begin, I will read an important notice on parliamentary privilege. Witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they give to the committee. However, if directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a 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 are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise nor make charges against any person or entity in such a way as to make them identifiable. Participants in the committee meeting who are in locations outside the parliamentary precincts are asked to note that the constitutional protections afforded to those participating from within the parliamentary precincts do not extend to them. No clear guidance can be given on whether or the extent to which participation is covered by the absolute privilege of a statutory nature.

Today, we are addressing the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly around norms and stereotypes in educations. Those are recommendations 26 to 31. The committee has been dealing in a modular fashion with the different recommendations of the assembly which we see as amounting to a blueprint for gender equality in Ireland. Our view is that we are charged with seeing how best we can implement those recommendations. We ask witnesses to address that issue of implementation in a practical sense. We also ask that they might confine their opening statement to five minutes as that will give us more time to engage. For engagement with each committee member, we have an eight-minute limit on the exchange.

I call on Dr. O'Sullivan to make her opening statement. This will be followed by those of Ms Sheridan and Dr. Corcoran on behalf of Women in Research Ireland.