Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-09
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

I move amendment No. 35:
In page 26, to delete lines 30 to 32.
I will be very brief. Amendments Nos. 35 and 36 delete the provision in sections 32 and 33, which prevents the CEO of the AI office from expressing an opinion or questioning the merit of any policy of the Government or the objectives of such a policy in front of Oireachtas committees. This is another feature of this Bill which calls into question the assertion of the independence of the AI office. How can the office be truly independent of Government if the CEO cannot question the substance or objective of a Government policy?
The Bill allows the Minister to issue directions to the CEO regarding policy and then precludes the CEO from making any public comments about those policies. This is not independence and, regardless of that, it is also not good practice. Bringing people in to work on a body and in an office that will gain such insight and expertise, which will constantly have eyes on what is happening in AI, and for that expert in the room - the CEO - to then not be able to question policy is authoritarian. This completely removes any sort of transparency in the expert of an AI office being able to question Government policy that could be terrible and could have a massive public impact on society. We are effectively covering the mouth of that person to question the policy.
If we were comfortable enough as Departments, the Government and politicians, we would not feel the need to effectively gag a CEO on challenging policy. As we know, AI is moving at a rapid rate and we have acknowledged many times throughout the Houses that politicians and policymakers are struggling to keep up with how quick it is moving. To have a CEO not be able to raise any sort of alarm with Government policy that could be way behind, or lacking in ethics, sustainability and all the stuff we mentioned, is a very bad move for any country. It is not allowing a CEO of a so-called independent body to challenge, speak to or criticise Government policy.

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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