Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 30 September 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence and Older People: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Niall Carroll:

I want to divert slightly. There is one thing that nobody has mentioned except Deputy Mythen and that is the cost of accessing the Internet. The service provider has complete control and a monopoly over what it charges for senior citizens or anybody else. If you replaced the TV licence with a digital licence and a PPP with semi-State bodies like NBI and SIRO, they could actually come together and formulate that. Instead of issuing a pensioner with a TV licence, they could be issued with a data licence so they can actually access it because they will have to.

On integration, regarding what Deputy Mythen was saying, the programme centres around teaching and having people develop confidence with their devices, their smartphones, tablets and laptops. We now incorporate AI teaching. In my group, I have sorted out a pros and cons sheet as to what to look for, what is fake and what is not fake. There are markers that they should look out for.

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