Artificial Intelligence
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath

I assure the Deputies we are very much responding to the huge challenge presented in the jobs market, but also the opportunity. The opportunity is very significant. The key pieces include skills, on which we have done a huge amount of work, and having our energy policy correct. The Deputies will have seen our large energy user policy, which gives a huge opportunity for sustainable use. Power will be a significant challenge in financing our offshore renewables and our green transition, which will go hand in hand with our digital transition. Leadership is important and we are doing that through our AI summit, the work being carried out in relation to our AI Act, establishing our AI office in August, having a regulatory sandbox in place and driving that pro-enterprise, proportionate agenda across the European Union.
We have to be careful to protect jobs in our economy. I know that more than most because every week I get notifications of redundancies across the economy. I see a trend in relation to those exposed to artificial intelligence. On the other side, there is huge recruitment with some companies taking on hundreds of jobs to further their research and innovation in artificial intelligence.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19