Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth
Protection of Children in the Use of Artificial Intelligence: Discussion (Resumed)
Ms Niamh Hodnett:
We are continuing to grow capacity at the moment. When we were established in March of last year, we had the 40 staff of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. We have a broad remit. In addition to online safety, all of the previous functions of the BAI are within our remit. We have grown to 90 people at this point and we have sanction to grow up to 160 people. We are very much in capacity-building mode. We have now put in place our director and principal officer levels and have finished the recruitment process for assistant principal officers who will join us in the coming months. We are currently advertising in the market for higher executive officers. As each new level comes in, we will grow to capacity so that by the end of the summer we will have the 160 people for whom we have sanction. We may have to go back to the well at that point and look for sanction to grow further in order to be able to do everything we want to do in our work programme.