Chairman: The purpose of the meeting is to have an engagement with representatives of the National Off-Licence Association and the Vintners' Federation of Ireland. Briefings have been circulated to members. I welcome Ms Evelyn Jones, Mr. Kevin O'Brien and Mr. Martin Moran from the National Off-Licence Association and Ms Noreen O'Sullivan, and Mr. Padraig Cribben from the Vintners' Federation of Ireland.

The format of the meeting is that I will invite representatives to make some opening remarks for approximately five minutes followed by a question and answer session with members which, from experience, we find is the most interesting part of an engagement such as this. 

As this meeting is being broadcast on the Oireachtas television channel, I would ask everybody to turn off their mobile telephones and any other devices which might interfere with the broadcast. It is annoying if such interference comes across the airwaves. 

Before we begin, I draw attention of all witnesses to the situation in relation to privilege. The should note, by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to do so, they will be entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. Members should be aware that, under the Salient Rulings of the Chair, members should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person or persons outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. 

The meeting is about alcohol. This is the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality and our focus is on matters such as public order, accidents and criminality. What we are really looking for at the end of the day is how to resolve some of the issues and what solutions the groups might come up with. The groups are the experts in this area, far more expert than we are. That is why we welcome the opportunity to engage with them this morning and to learn from their experience and what they have to bring to this. We are looking at public order, criminality, accidents, and possibly depression-suicide, which is also linked. However, we do not want to stray too much into the health area, which is the remit of a different committee. I invite Ms Jones to start the proceedings.