Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Marie Sherlock (LAB), Dublin Central

I must say to the Minister as Minister for foreign affairs it is an appalling situation that on the one hand, Ireland goes into the EU Council of Foreign Ministers to advocate for the cause of Palestinians and yet here at home adopts a mean spirited and hypocritical approach with regard to refusing so many Palestinian students visas. There is a 70% refusal rate this year. It was only 15% last year.
My specific question relates to the EU Digital Omnibus package, Ireland’s position and the Minister’s role in that. Effectively, the direction of travel is to loosen the protections in the AI Act. Last week, alarm bells were sounded by the developers of AI. AI has enormous potential for positive impact, particularly in the area of health, but we know for workers, consumers, for our security and democracy there are particularly terrifying prospects. What is the Minister doing to ensure that we have much better AI regulation in the European Union and that we are not going to diminish the existing standards and protections there already?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17