Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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In the context of looking at AI, the committee is focused on the need for human involvement, particularly when hiring and firing people, deciding who gets what shift and that sort of thing. Algorithms might be very handy but they do not take account of human beings. Some human involvement has to be built in. SMEs and customers want to know that is happening.

On the threats posed and cybersecurity, particularly as public services become digitised - when you look at e-health records, you wonder how much danger there is from a cyberattack when everything is paper based. Sin scéal eile, as they say. There is the National Cyber Security Centre. What is being done specifically to protect businesses? What approach will the Department take to ensure businesses have the necessary cybersecurity software and skills to protect their businesses from cyberattacks? The same will apply in the public sector. Will the Department take the road of upskilling staff through the likes of Skillnet? Will it be an all-in package? In other words, with AI comes security. How will that work?