I welcome everyone to their first meeting of the Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport. I am quite conscious that several members are at their first-ever committee meeting. They are especially welcome. Some of us have been around a little longer. We have received no apologies. One or two members are caught at other committee meetings, which often happens at this time, especially when committees are meeting for the first time. The members will come in later.
We have a good bit of housekeeping to get done, in public session and then in private. The first thing I have to do is make the Cathaoirleach's declaration:
I do solemnly declare that I will duly and faithfully, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, execute the office of Cathaoirleach of the Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport without fear or favour, apply the rules as laid down by the House in an impartial and fair manner, maintain order and uphold the rights and privileges of members in accordance with the Constitution and Standing Orders.
I remind members of the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings, they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex. Members of the committee attending remotely must do so from within the precincts of Leinster House. We will get back to this. It is due to the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings, members must be physically present within the confines of the place where the Parliament has chosen to sit. In this regard, I ask any member participating via MS Teams to confirm, prior to making a contribution to the meeting, that they are on the grounds of the Leinster House campus. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, I will direct them to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that everybody comply with any such direction. I hope such directions are rare.
Let me make some introductory remarks. The members are all very welcome. It is great to have our committee sitting at long last. I am delighted and personally very honoured to be the Chair of this committee. It is a committee I have never served on. It is one of the few, I believe, and I have been a member of a good few of them. The committee covers an area in which I have a great interest, so I am delighted to be chairing it. I look forward to working with each and every one of the members in a genuine spirit of partnership and co-operation and in addressing the very many issues and challenges facing the Department under the remit of this committee. I give my word that I will be as fair and impartial as I can to all members. I served as Vice Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts before, so I am familiar with this role.
I hope our collective endeavours on this committee will inform and support the efforts of the line Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, and the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, in securing Ireland's reputation as a country that truly values and treasures its arts, media, communications, culture and sport at all levels across society. The one thing about this committee is that it is very wide and diverse. There is an awful lot of scope for us to do a huge amount of work. In some cases, issues will pop up from time to time that we are not even considering at the moment. Other issues we will have to consider are fairly obvious. It is very diverse and we can make a lot through that diversity. By doing our work, we can build on the much-celebrated recent successes of artists, filmmakers, musicians and athletes, and also strengthen our media and communications infrastructure. The latter is a component of this committee that we will need to concentrate on.
At this point, before I go into nominations for Leas-Chathaoirleach, I will ask every member to introduce themselves for one minute. I am not yet looking for pitches on what we should speak about. We will talk about that a bit later. Members may introduce themselves and say one or two things they are interested in with respect to the committee. We will start with Deputy Gibney.
