Report of the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Motion
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-26
============================================================

Niamh Smyth (FF), Cavan-Monaghan

I welcome the opportunity to address the House. I sincerely thank Deputy Byrne, as Cathaoirleach of the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence, and the overall committee for the important work they have undertaken in their first interim report, which is the subject of this motion. The extensive engagement by the committee that informed this work, including the range of views and perspectives gathered through consultations, expert discussions and research is evident throughout. I appreciate the significant time and consideration that went into developing such a comprehensive report.
We are at a pivotal moment in our digital transformation. The rapid progress of digital technologies, and Al in particular, is changing how we live, how we work and how we interact as a society. The opportunity Al offers is immense, but I am acutely aware that so is our responsibility to get it right. The Government recognises that Al is not just a powerful tool for business and the economy; it is an enabler of progress that can benefit society as a whole and improve he lives of our citizens.
Al is not confined to any one sector, as the Cathaoirleach quite rightly alluded to. It is a cross-cutting technology that influences many areas of public policy and everyday life. The impacts of Al range from public service delivery, digital infrastructure, cybersecurity and online safety to enterprise and innovation, skills development and digital regulation. This requires a co-ordinated, coherent and ambitious whole-of-government response. That is exactly why, last week, the Government published our new national digital and Al strategy, Digital Ireland - Connecting our People, Securing our Future. The strategy reflects both the breadth of our ambition and the shared responsibility across government. It sets out five strategic and mutually reinforcing ambitions - apply, grow, invest, lead and empower - reflecting the agility needed to succeed in a fast-evolving digital world.
Those ambitions are to apply digital and Al technologies to enhance public services; to grow our digital economy and profile as a location of choice for investment and as a global hub for Applied Al; to invest in secure, resilient, future-proofed digital infrastructure, including building our cybersecurity capacity; to lead as a trusted, agile and forward-looking digital regulatory hub and centre of excellence; and to empower all groups in society and the economy with the skills and literacy needed to participate confidently and safely in a digital and Al economy and society. In order to protect vulnerable groups, particularly children and young people, we will also enhance our online safety framework at both national and EU levels. Through 20 high-level objectives and 90 deliverables, the strategy outlines the concrete actions that will accelerate digital and Al adoption across enterprise, the public sector, research and academia. It also includes targeted measures to improve public services and strengthen our health service.
The 85 recommendations in the committee's report naturally cut across the work of many Departments. I will focus specifically on some of the key recommendations that fall within my own remit. I am pleased to say that many of the recommendations are already under way. Starting with regulation and the national Al office, I acknowledge the emphasis the interim report places on ensuring robust and effective regulation is in place, and the important role of the national Al office in that regard. This aligns with the objectives and work of my Department, as does the report’s call for the national Al office to support Government, business and civic society in understanding and adopting trustworthy Al where appropriate.
The Al Act is an EU regulation which provides a consistent and high level of protection for European citizens’ health, safety and fundamental rights, and provides certainty for the use of human-centred and trustworthy AI in the EU. As an EU regulation, it is directly applicable and binding to all EU member states and ensures uniform rules for artificial intelligence to be applied across the EU. That said, the Act also imposes obligations on member states that require national implementing measures, including establishing a regulatory regime to supervise and enforce the regulation and establishing a single point of contact.
My Department is leading across government on the national implementation. We are making really strong progress on implementing the EU Al Act, the main supervision and enforcement provisions of which take effect from August 2026, with more specific rules to follow by 2027. The Government recently approved priority drafting of the legislation needed to give full effect to the Act. We have adopted a distributed implementation model so businesses can work with regulators who understand their sectors. My officials are engaging intensively and extensively with my Department, competent authorities and fundamental rights bodies to ensure Ireland is ready for the full implementation of the regulation of AI in Ireland. In parallel, work is progressing on the establishment of the independent statutory Al office of Ireland, which is scheduled to be in place by August 2026.
The Government recognises the importance of Ireland's reputation as a trusted, agile, forward-looking digital regulatory hub, and of ensuring our regulators are independent and adequately resourced. The statutory status and governance structure of the Al office of Ireland reflects that of established regulator bodies and is in line with Government’s code of practice for the governance of State bodies. A budget of €1.5 million has been allocated for its start-up phase. The office will be the central co-ordinating body for the implementation of the EU Al Act and will leverage the expertise of regulators across all sectors to ensure that when Al is deployed, it is done in a responsible and ethical manner. The remit of the office will also include maintaining a central register to identify and monitor systemic risks across sectors, ensuring the establishment of the national Al regulatory sandbox, and establishing collaborative forums with representative groups from society to support transparency, accountability and effective governance as Ireland implements the EU Al Act.
My officials are currently focused on the initial steps to stand up the new Al office of Ireland, including recruiting key personnel, developing the ICT framework, putting in place a single-point-of-contact structure, designing an extensive communications programme and putting in place a pool of technical expertise to support the competent authorities. The creation of the Al office of Ireland provides an opportunity to provide the Government with a permanent, independent source of expertise on Al. It will also promote the safe adoption of Al in our country.
Recent online safety issues have highlighted just how essential it is to have a strong and effective legal framework in place. The committee’s report makes a number of recommendations in relation to online safety and has particular concern around recommender systems. I want to be clear that online safety, especially for children and young people, remains a whole-of-government priority. A significant body of legislation and regulation, including Coco's Law, the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act and the EU Digital Services Act, is already in place. From a digital regulation perspective, the DSA forms a central part of Ireland's online safety framework. It includes specific provisions on recommender systems to ensure transparency. Under the DSA, platforms must clearly explain the main parameters behind how content is suggested to users. Services accessible to minors must also ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security, including a ban on direct ads based on profiling when the user is a minor.
It has been noted on a number of recent occasions in this House that several investigations are ongoing on these matters and the Attorney General and the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration are examining and will consider whether further legislative measures are needed in the area of non-consensual intimate images. In my own Department, we are liaising with the European Commission and member states to advocate for adding the use of AI systems for the generation of such images to the list of prohibited AI practices under the EU AI Act.
Online safety is a core pillar underpinning the National Digital and AI Strategy 2030 and a priority for Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union. These measures reinforce the Government's commitment to enhancing online safety, in particular for children and young people, as a whole-of-government and European priority. This brings me to another key focus of the report and a primary objective of the Al Act, namely, to promote and support the adoption of safe and trustworthy Al in enterprise and in our wider society. I have seen at first hand the impact Al can have on boosting productivity and enhancing competitiveness in firms of all sizes. This will be achieved through a new targeted sectoral strategy to drive enterprise Al adoption and by appointing new Al sector champions. We will also conduct an Al and digital awareness and literacy campaign for SMEs. It is important that we strengthen Ireland’s capability to understand and respond to the opportunities and challenges presented by Al. We are fully aligned with the committee on this point. For this reason, the new strategy includes actions to establish two observatories, which will provide the evidence base necessary to guide workforce, enterprise and innovation policy in the years ahead.
First, on skills, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has recently signalled his intention to progress the establishment of the national skills observatory, which is envisaged will transform our skills intelligence landscape. It will provide a valuable source of data and insights on the labour market and skills, facilitating improved workforce planning, stronger policy making, and improved lifelong learning and workforce reskilling. In my Department, we will establish an observatory for business Al readiness, focused on enterprise adoption of Al. Together with the national skills observatory, this will inform the Government in shaping future Al-related enterprises and jobs policy.
Finally, the committee’s report highlights the importance of the summit we are planning as part of our EU Presidency. I am happy to say work is well under way in the planning this flagship event, which will have the overall theme of enabling Al to power innovation-led growth across Europe. The summit has Government sponsorship at the highest level, bringing together over 1,000 global leaders, including CEOs, EU Ministers, officials, academia and innovators. As Ireland sits at the intersection of European and global tech, we are uniquely placed to convene meaningful dialogue. I am very much looking forward to showcasing Ireland's leadership in AI and digital innovation.
I will finish by saying that our vision is clear. We want to build an environment where AI and digital innovation empower our people and strengthen our economy and society in a way that is ethical, inclusive and sustainable.
I look forward to the debate today.
I will conclude by thanking all of the colleagues here today. This reflects many of the recommendations that have been made. I thank each and every Deputy for their contributions. I know they have worked extensively and very intensively. I tuned in to the AI committee hearing on Tuesday. I also want to put on the record my disappointment that some of the biggest companies here in Ireland, Microsoft and OpenAI, were not in a position to attend. I am equally disappointed that the committee did not get any response from X at all. I thank Google, whose representative attended and listened to the views of our colleagues from around the House.

---

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/dail/2026-02-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-26