{"id":483640,"date":"2026-06-05T01:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T01:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483640\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T01:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T01:23:09","slug":"entirely-my-decision-malcolm-byrne-resigns-as-chair-of-ai-committee-in-wake-of-arrest-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483640\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Entirely my decision\u2019: Malcolm Byrne resigns as chair of AI committee in wake of arrest \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> TD Malcolm Byrne<\/a> has stepped down as chairman of the Oireachtas<\/a> committee on artificial intelligence<\/a> after his arrest on suspicion of drink driving last week.<\/p>\n

Byrne confirmed at the weekend that he had been arrested having failed a breathalyser test at 5am<\/a> at a Garda<\/a> checkpoint while travelling from his hotel in Dublin<\/a> city to the airport. He is understood to have subsequently supplied a sample for a urine test at the Garda station. The Garda investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, Byrne said he was \u201cstepping down totally without prejudice to the ongoing legal process arising from my arrest on suspicion of drink driving. There is no further movement on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byrne, who is a TD for the Wicklow-Wexford constituency<\/a>, has been an active chair of the AI committee which has conducted a busy work programme since last year. It is due to publish its second interim report next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision to step down is entirely my own,\u201d he said in his statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the seriousness of the matter, my deep respect for my fellow committee members, and despite my strong personal and professional commitment to this area, I believe this is the right course of action to protect the committee\u2019s important work and ensure it can continue without any unnecessary distraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Garda investigation remains ongoing, and I am co-operating fully with that process, it would not be appropriate for me to comment further on that matter at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he would remain \u201can active member of the committee\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to continuing my work as a member of the committee and to continuing to write and speak about AI. Next week, I will also move second stage of the Protection of Voice and Image Bill, which I introduced in the D\u00e1il<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Byrne (52) from Gorey, was first elected as a TD in the 2019 byelection. He subsequently lost his seat a year later, and served as a senator before being re-elected to the D\u00e1il in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il TD Malcolm Byrne has stepped down as chairman of the Oireachtas committee on artificial intelligence after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,7038,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-483640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-irish-politics","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}