Prohibition of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17 ============================================================ Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin It is great to see the Minister of State here today. It is the first time I have seen her since her elevation. I congratulate her on her appointment and wish her the best of luck with her portfolio. I thank the Civil Engagement Group for bringing forward this legislation. It comes at a timely moment. We know about automation in weapons systems. There were radical changes in the automation of weapons systems during the 20th century and that has continued into the 21st century. However, the concept of an autonomous weapons system is an entirely new one that would take human beings completely out of the decision-making process. By way of illustration, during the D-Day invasion and subsequent invasion of Germany and liberation of France in the Second World War, it was the very first time we had these combined arms operations. At the height of that battle, the state of the art in terms of command, control and communication meant that when they were at their absolute maximum capacity, commanders could make maybe three or four real time, meaningful battlefield decisions in any 24 hours, at the level of division and above. It was about four decisions per day. Fast forward to the 21st century, thinking of operations such as the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, with changes in technology, logistics, supply, communications, digital communications and so on, they were able to increase that to maybe 24 to 30 decisions per day. With the use of AI and target acquisitions systems like Palantir and others, during the recent air campaign against Iran, the Israelis and the United States were able to perform up to 1,000 battlefield decisions per day. That is faster than human thought. That is not an autonomous weapons system; that is still one that is controlled by human beings. However, they are now controlling systems that operate faster than the speed of human thought and, in that context, they slaughtered thousands and thousands of people. There is a direct correlation between the increase or developments in technology, and lethality. We have to understand the context in which we are bringing this legislation forward. Senator O'Loughlin mentioned international treaties and conventions, and they would be my preference. However, we live in a world where the United States and Russia have acted without any regard to international law. Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu did not declare war on Iran and Lebanon. They did not have the pretence of going to the UN Security Council. They just attacked a neighbour, like medieval kings crossing into another territory to decapitate their leader. Reprehensible as they are, they killed the Ayatollah. I have no sympathy whatsoever for the Iranian regime and I do not mourn their passing, but I do mourn the passing of international law. We have to show leadership, and if we have to do it at national level, it will create the precedent and create moral pressure. The other issue with these autonomous weapons systems, in all of the desktop, IT-enhanced modelling they have done, they tend towards escalation, without the human component contained within them, because there is no moral dimension or sensitivity contained within them. Why is this happening at the moment? In the early nineties the US Secretary of Defense had a conference in the Pentagon and called in all of America's defense contractors and told them that, basically, they were all fired. It went from having hundreds of defence contractors to just five, including Boeing and Northrop Grumman, because of the peace dividend from the end of the Soviet Union. Donald Trump has brought together over 50 defence contractors and is obliging them to carry out defence work. In Silicon Valley, Google has the motto "Don't be evil." A lot of tech companies in Silicon Valley have traditionally stepped away from military contracts. That has changed. It is now referred to by the tech bros as the defence tech gold rush. We are on the threshold of the proliferation of autonomous weapons. We are at a transformational point. A system that is operating faster than the speed of thought may be overseen by people such as Xi Jinping, the ayatollahs, Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. We must show leadership in our own little way. I am glad the Government is not opposing the Bill. This is an opportunity to show leadership. As somebody said, we must be able to tell our grandchildren that we did everything in our power to stop this. --- 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/2026-06-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:04+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-17