Good afternoon. Everybody is welcome. We have a number of guests. Members are joining us both in person in the committee room and online too, so people will pop up on video screens at various stages. The purpose of our meeting today is to engage with the stakeholders in the room on the scrutiny of the general scheme of the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency Bill. This is a function we perform on a regular basis, where we consider legislation prior to it going through the different stages in the Houses. We conduct pre-legislative scrutiny. Many witnesses will be familiar with it but some may not. This is a vital part of the process where we consider proposals for legislation and hear from witnesses and experts like the witnesses, then we produce a report at the end. It produces the quality of the deliverable. That is what we are about today.
I welcome people in the order they happened to be seated. We have Ms Ivanna Youtchak, who is the National Women's Council violence against women co-ordinator and Ms Orla O'Connor, also from the National Women's Council. They are very welcome. From the Men's Development Network, I welcome Mr. Seán Cooke, CEO, and Mr. Colm Kelly Ryan, head of programmes and advocacy. I welcome Mx. Daire Dempsey, the education officer, and Ms Lee Martin, a legal intern, from Transgender Equality Network Ireland. I welcome Dr. Salome Mbugua Henry, CEO of Akina Dada wa Africa, AkiDwA, and Alannah Owens, its policy officer. I welcome Mary McDermott, CEO, and Caroline Counihan, legal support manager, from Safe Ireland. I welcome Dr. Clíona Saidléar, executive director of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland. Those are our expert witnesses and stakeholders. From the Department of Justice, we have valued input from Mr. Paul O'Farrell, principal officer, criminal legislation section, and Ms Layla de Cogan Chin, principal officer in the criminal governance section. It is always a feature of our meetings that we have officials from the Department of Justice as observers and witnesses from it can clarify any points that arise as required, which is quite helpful to our deliberations.
With all the introductions done, I will read a note on privilege. Some will be familiar with procedure here and some perhaps less so. There is a long-standing parliamentary practice that witnesses should not, in the course of giving their remarks or answering questions, 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 that person or entity. If their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they may be directed to discontinue those remarks. If that happens, it is imperative that they comply with any such direction. That is the housekeeping business. It is important to note that.
It is important to set out the format and how we operate at the start. Each organisation will be invited to give an opening address of three minutes. It does not seem like a terribly long time but it is really just to make their key opening points. There will be ample time over the course of the meeting thereafter to amplify points, come in and out and engage with the members. We will keep it tight because that allows for greater engagement in the later part of the meeting. We find it is a format that works. We have a clock which we will use. When we get to three minutes, I will remind people, if they are still going, that we have to move on to the next organisation. I will then take committee members in the order that they indicate. There is a six-minute initial round per member. Members can ask questions and make comments and observations. Witnesses can engage through me, as Chair, with the questioner. We will then move on to the next member for another six-minute block. We can do that a few times as needed to get the discussion going. I say that to explain how the process works.
I will start with Ms Youtchak from the National Women's Council.