Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

I thank all of the witnesses for being here.

I joined late but I listened to the full meeting in my office. Picking up on that theme about how we move towards or ensure that we have a robust legislative and regulatory framework that protects interests and rights and is inclusive and participative, what do the witnesses think of the notion of codesign in the space of AI? There are real risks there but there are also significant potential benefits for everybody, including people with disabilities. I would have thought that our response needs to be one of strong legislation and regulation notwithstanding the fact that these are private technologies, there is a black box and none of us really know exactly what is going on with regard to it. Central to all of it is that there would be codesign, participation, inclusivity and the voice of the citizen. Do the witnesses, individually or collectively, have models or ideas about what that might look like from a practical day-to-day point of view in terms of their own participation as groups or individuals but also in terms of regulation, because these are private companies? We need to mandate them to do this stuff. They can do it of their own volition for environmental, social, and governance, ESG, reasons, but from a governmental point of view, they will not do it unless we mandate them to do it on a wholesale basis.