Lynn Ruane (Independent)
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We have apologies from Deputy Stanton and Senators O'Hara and Seery Kearney. Deputy Quinlivan is substituting for Deputy Gould. Members will come in and out given they are needed at other meetings.

Parliamentary privilege is considered to apply to the utterances of members participating online in a committee meeting where their participation is from within the parliamentary precincts. There can be no assurances in relation to participation online from outside the parliamentary precincts, and members should be mindful of this when they are contributing.

I welcome all our witnesses and wish them a good morning. The topic of this meeting is a health-led approach to drug use policy. Committee members are obviously very interested in hearing from experts in drug policy. We have heard from various sectors over recent months and I hope we can continue over the next few months to meet all the stakeholders. For this session I welcome the representatives from the school of nursing and midwifery in Trinity College: Dr. Peter Kelly, assistant professor in mental health nursing, Mr. Barry McBrien, assistant professor, and Professor Catherine Comiskey, professor in healthcare modelling and statistics. I thank them for agreeing to be here.

I invite Dr. Kelly to give his opening statement.