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

The legislation has provisions, or includes provisions elsewhere, that when we are referring to "personal data" it states it "has the same meaning as it has in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016". Therefore, everything works. Once you are designating something as a "data-gathering device" then the broader European GDPR and other regulations kick in. As Senator Higgins said, this is an evolving area where we are awaiting European legislation on AI and facial recognition technology. It is better to apply the principles of European rules, including those of the European Court of Justice, around this and not try to use the Road Traffic Act and the specific definitions of technologies as a way of trying to do the same thing, because it changes with respect to some of the devices we may look to use. However, I absolutely agree on the need for them to be regulated by good European and Irish law.