Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I am chairing another committee at the same time, so I apologise for missing the first opening statement. I read it with interest over the weekend. I use AI a lot for research purposes. Everything I do from a research perspective is always double-checked to ensure that the sources are correct.

Did An Coimisiún Toghcháin use AI in helping to draft this opening statement? The answer is "No". From reading it, some things stand out to me, particularly the use of the long em dashes that we would see in the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini and the language that is used. Since the answer is "No", that is fine. The reason I asked that question is I feel that there are no solutions or actions in the opening statement, particularly in light of what Mr. O'Leary called out in the presidential election of President Catherine Connolly. What actions did An Coimisiún Toghcháin take? What actions could it take in future?

That leads into a question as well about possibly establishing an AI and digital resilience unit, either within An Coimisiún Toghcháin or within the Department of local government and housing, to help tackle this type of particular misinformation and, let us be straight about it, election interference. Does Mr. O'Leary wish to answer these questions straight away?