I'd like to start the meeting.
First of all, I'd like to thank our guests and witnesses today from Ireland. Thank you very much for rearranging your schedules so that we could hear from you an hour earlier. As you know, in government things can sometimes change on the fly. We have some votes a little bit later, so we figured it would be better, for the sake of continuity, to sit for two hours as opposed to breaking it up and maybe not being able to get back. So I want to thank you all for your accommodation and for being flexible for us.
I'll introduce you just as you appear on my list. We have Gerry Mangan, director of the Office for Social Inclusion; Kevin O'Kelly, director of the Combat Poverty Agency; and Bevin Cody, head of communications and public affairs for the Combat Poverty Agency. We also have Professor Tim Callan from the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Again, thank you for rearranging your schedules so that you could be with us. As you are probably aware, here at the human resources committee we are just undertaking a study on poverty in Canada. We understand that you men and women have been doing some great things over in Ireland. We appreciate your taking time to share with us some of the successes you have had.
Gerry, I'm going to start with you, sir. Each of you will have ten minutes. Once we have gone through your presentations, we will start with our rounds of questions.
Yes, Mr. Savage.