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 am disappointed that the Minister of State has not indicated her intention in using section 10. That would have been a good signal. It is woefully unacceptable to say “but there are all of these other bodies.” If people go to the Department and say they have concerns in relation to AI ethical or AI sustainable issues, will they have to go to IHREC for that? They will have to go round the houses. They will have to go to the Data Protection Commission only to come back. If the Department is setting up the regulatory authority, the Minister of State has literally told us these bodies should not come to it with their problems. They should go to one of the other authorities which are set up properly. Is it or is it not part of that regulatory authority architecture that the Minister of State has just described? Is it going to function like Coimisiún na Meán? Is it going to function like any of these other bodies, and have that actual component? Are people still expected to go with their ethical concerns about AI to these other bodies? Why is there not a signal for this? I am actually surprised. I could understand if it had, as an oversight, or poor decision-making within the Department been left out, but I genuinely, fundamentally asked that this be addressed, if not by our amendments, by the functions and powers the Minister has. That is there under section 10, and as for simply saying they will go somewhere else, will they go somewhere else because human rights are not going to be in the mix for this body when it does its job? Can the Minister of State confirm whether section 15 of the climate Act will apply to this body and its operations? That relates to my question on sustainability.

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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