Artificial Intelligence
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-13
============================================================

Alan Dillon (FG), Mayo

I thank Deputy Geoghegan for his interest in the AI Act. There are questions here today and certainly his welcome for the AI office is crucial. The Minister, Deputy Burke, allocated more than €1.4 million for its establishment, with the staffing plan now in place, and to ensure the sandbox is operational by August next year, which is not far away. We are also working with the EU digital innovation hubs and CeADAR to provide technical expertise and support for businesses. We need to continue to ensure the AI office can be functional in this time. For us, the sandbox is not another bureaucratic hurdle; it is certainly a tool that can support SMEs on their innovation journey. They can test AI systems safely, reduce compliance uncertainty and speed up market access. We have a good story to tell in regard to new start-ups in the AI sector. We want to become a leader among many competitive members in the EU to ensure we are at the fore of AI regulation. This initiative is very important on that journey.

---

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/dail/2025-11-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-13