Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 7 October 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence and Disability: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Tim Culhane:

As we said in our recommendation, there has to be robust legislation when it comes to GDPR compliance and the protection of our privacy and data. These companies have to know there are consequences if they do not, first, protect data and, second, provide people with a means to have control over their data. There is a provision online for Google etc. that you have the right to be forgotten. AI companies have to be brought into that. I could be wrong; perhaps they are already included. I have not seen personally that whatever I did yesterday, for example, can be forgotten.

The other thing is that there has to be a clear auditable line of investigation there so that, if regulators do come in, they have access to information and are not fobbed off or blocked from getting access to the information they need if they feel that the AI companies are not standing up to their legal obligations.