Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-09
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Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel

In answer to one of the points made by the Minister of State, I still do not understand why we would not follow models like IHREC and the DPC. The Minister of State has not answered the rationale. I appreciate that some bodies might operate with this model but the Minister of State has not explained the rationale for not copying the model for those important regulatory bodies that we have in Ireland like Coimisiún na Meán, the DPC and IHREC. I do not understand why a different process is being chosen here. I do not conceptually understand why. To what purpose? For what end?
The Minister of State made the point that it is not the responsibility of the Government to deal with terminations or the removal of people from office because it is the Minister who appoints them. As I will discuss later, I do not think that it should be the Minister who appoints the CEO. I do not think that is appropriate. I do not think it provides the necessary independence. It should be a completely separate system. One of the rationales given was that it is the Minister who makes these appointments. I do not think that the Minister should make those appointments so that rationale does not stick.
I ask the Minister of State to speak more broadly as to why the Minister of State has chosen this approach when so many of the other bodies take a different approach and have more independence.

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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