Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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I welcome everybody to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Today, the committee meets to commence our discussion on the constitutional amendment on the right to housing. This was referred to us by the Minister, who asked the committee to carry out some scrutiny of the proposed wording for the constitutional amendment. I welcome the witnesses. In the room, from Home for Good, we are joined by Mr. Adam Boyle from the Mercy Law Resource Centre and Ms Cat Clark from Threshold. We are joined remotely by Mr. Wayne Stanley from the Simon Communities of Ireland and Dr. Conor Casey from the University of Surrey. They are very welcome. We are also joined remotely by the former members of the Housing Commission, Dr. Ronan Lyons from Trinity College Dublin and Mr. Michael O'Flynn from the O'Flynn Group. I welcome the witnesses and thank them for taking time out of their busy schedules to assist us.

I remind members of the constitutional requirement that members must be physically present within the confines of the place where the Parliament has chosen to sit, namely, Leinster House, in order to participate in public meetings. Those witnesses attending in the committee room are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their contributions to today's meeting. This means they have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything they say at the meeting. Members and witnesses are expected not to abuse the privilege they enjoy. It is my duty as Chair to ensure that this privilege is not abused. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction. For our witnesses who are attending remotely, there are some limitations to parliamentary privilege and, as such, they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as a person does who is physically present. Members and witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person or entity outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I invite the witnesses to make their opening statements. Those opening statements were circulated to us. I note that the report from the Housing Commission and the minority report previously were also circulated to us. I invite Mr. Stanley to speak and we will then follow up with Dr. Lyons.