Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree. I fear we could end up in a situation where we would have to go back to amend primary legislation in an evolving area where we have different types of electronic devices which might want to use the data. I agree with Senator Ruane's earlier contention that we need to regulate how devices using facial recognition technology or artificial intelligence, AI, which could have a surveillance component, may be used. That is a separate issue in my mind to the case as to whether we should specify every single type of device in primary legislation. That is not exhaustive and I am quite certain we may want to use the data from other devices for very good reasons such as protecting lives, making sure we have better environmental output and better safety conditions. Let us absolutely regulate against surveillance as appropriate but I do not believe that requires primary legislation in every piece of legislation to define each and every device.