James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome our witnesses, who I will introduce in a moment.

If members or witnesses have mobile phones they should turn them off or switch them to flight mode so as not to interfere with the signal.

Today's meeting is an engagement with Garda Commissioner Harris about policing matters. This follows on from a recent meeting we held with various representative organisations and other interested parties, where similar topics were discussed.

I welcome Commissioner Harris. He is accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Anne Marie McMahon, with responsibility for policing and security; Ms Yvonne Cooke, acting executive director human resources and people development; and Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis of the Dublin metropolitan region. They are all welcome.

I will read a brief note on parliamentary privilege. Witnesses and members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. If their statements are potentially defamatory in respect of an identifiable person or entity, they may be directed to discontinue their remarks, and it is imperative they comply with any such direction if given. We are dealing with professional witnesses today, and I hope with professional members. That note is often a formality, but it is important to recap those ground rules at the outset of every meeting.

I think most of the witnesses have been with us before. How we operate is that I will invite the Garda Commissioner to make an opening statement at the outset. We will then do a round robin of the members, each of whom has a six-minute slot including both questions and responses the witnesses wish to give. There is usually a degree of latitude, but typically after six minutes I will move it on to the next member so everybody gets a fair bite of the cherry.

I invite Commissioner Harris to make his opening statement.