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

I do not disagree with this issue. It is an issue obviously with mobile phones where there is a very serious issue around all the information, controversially. We have to be careful here not to try to address this whole complex issue through a piece of traffic management regulation. If we are starting to get down to specifics and that every device might be a data sharing device, we would have to start with this very room and my colleague here beside me with the headphones because they have an internet of things and world data sharing connecting capabilities: the screen in his hands, which records votes and who is speaking; the laptop; the microphones; all the other devices in this room - I could go on and list a whole range of devices - are collecting or have the potential to collect data. We could go into a very difficult legislation system here for the road traffic system, where similarly so many different devices are connected to an internet of things, and try to address this very important justice issue around how data records people's movements, actions, behaviours and so on but I do not think that will actually address it by trying to list every single thing.

In the traffic management area, the same thing applies. I did not disagree with the Senator's original argument that we need to consider particular facial recognition technology and AI and so on and how data is used, but we do not get that by just trying to list every single device that might have implications on how the data could be used. It is better to recognise that there are devices which could be used in that regard such as the lights of speed guns or e-tolling equipment. They classified them to give us the ability to have those types of devices. Yes, we need to regulate them in terms of their implications for facial recognition technology and-or the use of AI but we will not solve that problem by just trying to list every device.