Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

I thank the witnesses for coming in. The discussion has been very interesting. It is extremely important that we hear from them on where the guidelines are going. The guidelines that were launched in April or May contain seven principles, which are: responsible AI; human agency and oversight; technical robustness and safety; privacy and data governance; transparency; diversity, non-discrimination and fairness; societal and environmental well-being; and accountability. The witnesses have been questioned on many of those this morning. Ms Cassidy mentioned the guidelines for a responsible AI canvas, internal operations and service delivery. Service delivery is very important.

It will be about how we embrace the evolution of technology, streamline things, make them easier and speed up the processes we in government and across all agencies do. It is about helping to tailor interactions and reduce waiting times. That is the end goal of all of this.

I am particularly interested in internal and external oversight, fraud detection and compliance. Senator Ruane mentioned the expertise of certain groups at filling out applications and getting the outcome they want. That raises a lot of questions when it comes to AI because there is algorithmic bias based on the information going into it. What measures are being put in place to guarantee transparency in the public sector algorithms across Departments in such areas as welfare decisions, education, agriculture and policing? I am happy for anyone to answer that.