Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Apologies have been received from Senator Bradley. The agenda item for consideration this evening is pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the equality (miscellaneous provisions) Bill 2024. Joining us for this session are Mr. Liam Herrick, chief commissioner, and Dr. Iris Elliott, head of policy and research at the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC; Dr. Aideen Hartney, director, and Mr. Ciarán Finlay, senior policy and public affairs advisor with the National Disability Authority, NDA; Mr. Martin Collins, co-director of Pavee Point; Mr. Donal Swan, women's economic equality co-ordinator, and Ms. Kate Mitchell, head of development and policy at the National Women's Council of Ireland; Ms Carly Bailey, policy manager with One Family who is also representing the National One Parent Family Alliance; and Ms Louise Bayliss, head of social justice and policy with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which is also a member of the alliance.

I wish to advise all present that representatives of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, were invited to participate in this meeting. However, due to other diary commitments, they were unable to attend and have sent their sincere apologies. The WRC will, instead, provide us with a written submission on the general scheme for the consideration of members. The purpose of this meeting is to hear the views of the stakeholders present on the provisions of the general scheme under consideration. It is hoped that this engagement will assist members in the preparation of our pre-legislative scrutiny report on the general scheme.

Before we begin, I have a few housekeeping matters to go through. I wish to advise everyone that the chat function on MS Teams should only be used to make the team on site aware of any technical issues or urgent matters that may arise and should not be used to make general comments or statements during the meeting. I would also like to remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where he or she is not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate from outside the confines of the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting. In this regard, I ask members participating via MS Teams to confirm that they are on the grounds of the Leinster House campus prior to making a contribution to the meeting.

In advance of inviting our witnesses to deliver their opening statements, I advise them of the following in relation to parliamentary privilege. Witnesses and members are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the presentation they make to the committee. This means that they have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything they say at the meeting. However, they are expected not to abuse this privilege and it is my duty, as Cathaoirleach, 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 and it is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

Witnesses will have three minutes of speaking time to deliver their opening statements and I ask them to adhere to the time allocation. Once the delivery of the opening statements has been completed, this will be followed by a question and answer session with members. I invite Mr. Herrick to deliver his opening statement.