I welcome and thank members and the Minister. They are very welcome to the Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs. The Dáil referred the affordable child care Bill 2017 to our committee on 1 February. Today's meeting of the select committee will consider the Bill on Committee Stage and report back to the Dáil. Before proceeding with the business, I remind members and those in the Public Gallery that mobile phones should be switched off completely or to aeroplane mode for the duration of this meeting as they interfere with our broadcasting systems. Even when on silent mode they tend to do so.
I also remind Members of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person or body outside the House or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.
I welcome the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, and the officials from her Department. In advance of the Minister's opening statement, I wish to bring a matter of correspondence to the attention of the committee and the Minister because it relates to Scouting Ireland. As the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte and I will be aware, this matter entered the public domain at the end of last week. All three Members of the Oireachtas present made statements to express concern about the matter. I wish to bring it to members' attention that I received correspondence from Scouting Ireland's chief executive officer, Dr. John Lawlor, yesterday and have had conversations with him since. I have formally requested, with the agreement of members of the committee, to write to Scouting Ireland and request a copy of its child protection procedures for the consideration of this committee. I have no doubt but that this will also be circulated to the Minister. I will make arrangements for this letter to be circulated to all members of the committee because it is addressed to me as Chairman of the committee. I just wanted to put that into the public domain. Whether we consider requesting Scouting Ireland to come before us is a matter which we can consider at a later date. While we do not have compellability powers in respect of Scouting Ireland as an organisation, I have spoken with the organisation and Dr. Lawlor indicated he would not be averse to attending to discuss the matter in the future. I understand matters are under investigation within the organisation. This is no secret; Dr. Lawlor himself has put it on the public record. Therefore, we would not wish to pre-empt or predetermine any of these matters but I wanted to put that on the record for the members present because I was not able to reach a number of members last week. I was out of the country on business pertaining to another committee. I think that concludes that part.
