Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-01 ============================================================ Laura Harmon (LAB), Industrial and Commercial Panel I echo the concerns of colleagues over the amount of time we have to scrutinise this legislation. It is important that we get to have a full debate in the Seanad in relation to it. It was quite appalling that the tech companies refused to engage with Oireachtas committees. I thought it was a real mark of disrespect to the media committee, but also to the committee on artificial intelligence. When we invited many of them in, I think only one showed up. This is something on which they need to engage more with us as public representatives. Ultimately, the Labour Party welcomes the intent of this Bill. The emergence of AI will likely lead to some of the most significant societal and economic change we will see in our lifetimes, and good regulation is absolutely critical. AI is already fundamentally changing our economy, our jobs market, the way we work and ultimately, how we live our lives. It is also changing how important decisions are made. It is incumbent on any Government to recognise the scale of the challenge here and to respond. We cannot simply leave the direction of this transformation to the tech giants. We know their only priority will be the power and profits they hope will flow their way on the back of this AI revolution, so regulation and democratic guardrails are essential. The choice we are faced with is not between AI or no AI - it is already here and there are many benefits to it - but between a human-centred AI that serves ordinary people and AI that serves tech billionaires and those who want to oppress. It has the potential to deliver much good, but it needs to have the public's trust in order to do this, and it needs to have effective regulation. The EU AI Act was an important world first in beginning to put regulatory guardrails in place, but it is certainly not perfect. There are issues, including how companies effectively self-designate as high risk or otherwise, how it fails to effectively safeguard copyright protections for creatives, and gaps in its definition of high-risk AI uses. Nonetheless, it was a vital first step and it is welcome that this Bill aims to implement some of the requirements arising from that legislation relating to Ireland. We need to make sure this legislation is watertight. My colleague, Deputy Lawlor, raised significant constitutional concerns with this legislation in the Dáil, relating to the system of adjudication on fines and how that relates to our constitutionally protected judicial independence. We need clear answers on those questions already raised, but we also need to see much more urgency from the Government in responding to the challenge of AI. This Bill makes a start on that regulation but there is no sign the Government is fully taking seriously the challenge AI will pose to the jobs market and the world of work. For example, even if the overall level of employment does not decrease, what jobs are available, where they are available and to whom may radically change. That churn occurs as part of this transition, and it is going to have real world consequences for many people. Some 11% of workers in Ireland fear losing their job to AI in the next five years, and 38% believe it is likely their employers will use AI to replace workers where possible. These are huge concerns. AI can also have serious negative impacts on job quality. AI pessimism has been found to be prevalent among workers, with one in two workers in Ireland not believing their workplace will adopt AI in a way that is beneficial to them. My time is running out, but I just want to say from a workers' rights perspective that we absolutely need to be steadfast with regard to protecting workers and being on their side when it comes to artificial intelligence. We believe a starting point would be giving the new oifig IS na hÉireann, which will be established under this Bill, the powers to monitor the impact of AI on jobs and work, promote responsible rights respecting AI use by employers, and lead on ensuring upskilling and retraining opportunities are made available as AI will disrupt the jobs market. --- 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/2026-07-01/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-01