Artificial Intelligence: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-28 ============================================================ Linda Nelson Murray (FG), Industrial and Commercial Panel I thank the Minister of State for attending. In recent weeks, we have confronted some stark warnings about where unchecked AI can harm society. It has brought into focus both the immense promise and real challenges that AI presents to us. I attended a presentation in the audiovisual room yesterday and I am not the better for it. I listened to what young girls and young boys are exposed to about what they should expect when they become sexually active with each other, how girls are arriving in emergency departments with choking injuries and private area injuries at the age of 15, how one young man killed himself after chatting to his AI friend which mentioned suicide to him six times, and about the types of women people can create to be their AI girlfriend. I am mam to a ten-year-old and 11-year-old girl, just like the Minister of State is a mam to a young girl, and I absolutely dread the online AI world that they are growing up in. There is no time to waste on this. I know the Minister of State gets it, but as the strong Cavan woman she is, she really needs to push for the work on this now. The online safety matters that have come so much to the fore in recent weeks have highlighted the importance of having an effective legal and regulatory framework to deal with issues around deepfakes and consent. The controversy surrounding an AI feature that is integrated into a social media platform has been a troubling development, as we have all witnessed over the last few weeks. This has rightly led to public uproar. On Sunday, the UN urged governments to implement more effective online regulations to address children's increased exposure to AI-generated content, which were signed by many companies and groups across the world. Experts recounted the ways in which bad actors target children using AI and digital technology, noting that predators can use AI to analyse a child's online behaviour, emotional state and interests to tailor their grooming strategy. AI has also facilitated sexual extortion by enabling offenders to generate explicit fake images of real children. In an October 2025 study, Childlight - Global Child Safety Institute found a 1,325% increase in harmful AI-generated online abuse material. Experts urged countries like ours to explicitly criminalise, investigate, and appropriately sanction and bring to justice perpetrators of all forms of online child sexual abuse or exploitation committed through or with the support of AI systems, tools and platforms. That leads me to the press release by our colleague, Deputy Brennan, with the headline describing the revelation that "not a single prosecution has been taken against a social media company for child abuse." The Oireachtas media committee was informed there has not been a single successful prosecution against any of the major tech firms for the manufacture and dissemination of child abuse image. A senior member of An Garda Síochána cyber crime bureau that day told the committee no case had been taken any social media company. It was also revealed that 25,000 referrals of potential sex abuse images were made to the Garda last year. Social media companies have been around for two decades. They are not new in our lives. They must be held accountable in a court of law. This is the only way to send out a message to them. I will give an example of something else. We have all seen in the past few days the news about a fraudulent insurance claim made by a guy ten years ago who was sentenced to three years in jail. He was only sentenced last Friday. It took ten years to do that. When cases come on social media, it is such a fast moving, fast paced environment, we cannot wait that long. We have the Special Criminal Court for organised crime, which is fantastic. Maybe we need a fast paced court specifically for prosecuting anything harmful online when it comes to children. I was glad to see the chatbot site, character.ai , cutting off teenagers from having conversations with virtual characters after facing intense criticism over the kinds of interactions young people were having with online companions. The platform, founded in 2021, is used by millions to talk to chatbots powered by AI but it is facing massive lawsuits, including one over the death of a teenager, with some branding it a clear and present danger. The platform has taken action and now, under-18s will only be able to generate content such as videos with their characters rather than talk to them like they used to able to do. There are also broader concerns about the rise of misleading or harmful AI in media and politics, from deepfakes to disinformation campaigns that threaten the integrity of public debate and trust in our institutions. The current debate on AI must also not lose sight of the opportunities to business, which was rightly mentioned, particularly for Irish SMEs. For Irish firms and their workers, AI presents a significant opportunity to enhance productivity, unlock new capabilities and generate real value. AI offers massive potential to SMEs to cost effectively level-up to larger competitors. Strategies and tools once reserved for big businesses are now accessible to smaller firms. We had great conversations today in the enterprise committee about how we can support small businesses and Enterprise Ireland was there. The AI revolution offers additional capability to businesses, including the scope to free up staff to focus on higher value work. AI is also creating demand for new and better jobs. To date, AI has not impacted the overall staffing needs of the vast majority of SMEs - which we do not want, obviously. However, the biggest risk to Ireland's economy and Irish jobs would be Ireland's failure to adapt, adopt and keep up with international competitors who are embracing AI. I note that Nordic countries like Denmark, Finland and Sweden lead in Europe for corporate AI adoption. In 2025, over 42% of Danish enterprises used AI, followed closely by Finland and Sweden. I welcome the new AI office that will be opened in August 2026. I also note in Ireland we are at about 10% but a lot of the companies that are using it at the moment are testing the waters and seeing in what aspect of their business they would use it. I really thank the Minister of State for her time here today. I really look forward to all of the vital work I have no doubt she will do in this space. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-28/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:33+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-28