James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, the sponsor of the Bill, is with us. I will invite the Deputy to set out the rationale behind the Bill and give us an overview of it. There is no particular hurry today because normally we would have a number of witnesses and we would need to divide the time. The Deputy can take five or ten minutes - whatever he needs. He is our only witness. When the Deputy has made his opening remarks, we will go around the table and members will contribute. We can engage and then have further rounds, if required. When our public session concludes, we will hold a private session with our parliamentary legal adviser for an assessment of the Bill from a legal perspective.

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for being with us. He is very welcome. I invite the Deputy to address the committee.