Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-09
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

I will be brief on that same point. The Seanad has the EU scrutiny committee to try to ensure that statutory instruments are published six months in advance so that there can be an input process. Similarly, we should be looking at this legislation many more months in advance so that we can have the best process. When we are putting in place something so new, it is extra important to have that done. There is a level of poor timing, whereby it is coming at such a late stage. I appreciate that the Minister of State is dealing with a new area but it is a pattern, unfortunately. I spoke earlier about how ten out of the previous 11 Planning and Development Acts have arrived in the last two weeks of July or the last week of December. We have always been told that, unfortunately, the Government cannot take on amendments because we are moving at this pace. It is not unique to the Minister of State, but as a Government practice, it needs improvement.
We may disagree on some of the amendments but that is fine. We can proceed to the vote and so forth.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:11+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-09