James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)

It is hard to confine this conversation just to AI because it touches on everything. I hope the witnesses will indulge me in the beginning. Mr. O'Leary mentioned in his statement that generally there is trust in our democracy and in the institutions of our democracy and our elections. Did the inclusion of a candidate who had pulled out of the presidential election race on people's ballot paper pose a delegitimisation or threat to our democracy or a risk to people's confidence in the electoral system in a way that, perhaps, no other event in our electoral history had?