Seanad debates
Tuesday, 30 September 2025
An tOrd Gnó (Atógáil) - Order of Business (Resumed)
2:00 am
Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)
I, too, wish to be associated with the condolence messages that have been echoed in the Chamber today.
Last week, in the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence, we heard from the young people and youth representative bodies regarding AI and the impact on their lives. This morning, we also heard from representatives from the older bodies, people representing the older demographic. A lot of the information we heard from both demographic groups was about what the apps and the tech companies are doing with our data when they access it.
I was at the train station in Castlerea last week and I realised it was very simple on the machine in the station to buy a ticket to Dublin or to Westport but it was not a simple process, or it was not possible for me, to buy a ticket to Drogheda, Dundalk, Sligo, Cork, Wexford, Roscrea or Limerick. Even though they are on the rail network, I would have to make a connection in Dublin and buy a separate ticket. When I contacted Irish Rail about this, it told me that the vending machines in the stations were two decades old and, unfortunately, it was not a simple change to add stations on other routes and enable the purchase of tickets due to the legacy aspect of the technology in the machines. Just because it is not working does not mean we cannot look at changing this. People are worried about their data and what is happening the data when they go onto any of those websites or these apps, so we need to give them an opportunity to do this at the actual stations. Irish Rail told me that 75% of purchases are done through its website or the app channels, which still leaves 25% and, potentially, when we find out what is happening our data, the number of people who are looking to buy these tickets at the local stations will increase.I call on the House to have a conversation about the different public systems that we are using and to give people of all age groups – not just older people, but young people as well – the ability to buy different things physically in the State rather than by means of apps or websites.
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